Mentors
Lewis Chaplin, Co-Founder Loose Joints
Lewis Chaplin (b. 1992) is a British book-maker and graphic designer based in Marseille, France. In 2014 he co-founded Loose Joints, an award-winning publishing house and design studio, with Sarah Chaplin Espenon. In 2021, they opened Ensemble, a bookshop and gallery in Marseille. Loose Joints collaborates with artists on contemporary photography books, managing design, editing, and production in-house. Their publications won the Aperture–Paris Photo PhotoBook Award in 2024, 2022, and 2020. Loose Joints also operates as a design studio and runs a publishing residency with Mahler & LeWitt Studios in Spoleto, Italy. Previously, Chaplin ran publisher fourteen-nineteen, co-organized Copeland Book Market, and was senior designer at MACK. Guest
Sami El Kasm, Photo editor at Libération
Sami El Kasm is a deputy photo editor at Libération, where he works on editing and assigning photographers for different sections of the paper. At Libération he oversees both the international and the national photo report. Prior to joining Libération, he worked as a photo editor at Le Monde and the International New York Times. At Libération he has assigned a variety of photographers including Cyril Zannettacci, Myriam Boulos, William Keo, Andréa Mantovani, Guillaume Herbaut, Tanya Habjouqa and Peter Van Agtmael. 
Sergio Valenzuela-Escobedo, Artistic researcher and curator
Sergio Valenzuela-Escobedo is an artist and researcher whose work sits at the intersection of artistic research, curatorial practice and education. He holds a PhD in Photography from the École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie (ENSP). Over the years, he has curated a range of exhibitions, including Mapuche at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris, Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation which was finalist for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2018 and Geometrical Forest, presented at the Rencontres d’Arles and the trilogy Mama Coca, Ipáamamu, and Oro Verde at the 2023 Fotofestiwal in Łódź. In 2025, he presented Lightseekers, a five-part project created for the Porto Biennale. He mentors emerging photographers at the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg and ENSP in France. Valenzuela-Escobedo is the artistic director of doubledummy studio and an active member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA). In 2025, he was appointed to the jury for the Discovery Award Louis Roederer Foundation, part of the Rencontres d’Arles. 
Zied ben Romdhane, Magnum photographer
Zied Ben Romdhane, born in 1981 in Tunisia, shifted his focus to documentary photography in 2011. He published his first book, West of Life, in 2018 with Red Hook Editions. Ben Romdhane’s work is centered around his native Tunisia. He delves into the socio-political contrasts between inland regions and coastal areas, shedding light on how geography shapes these dynamics. He won the World Press Photo Prize in 2024, was selected for the 6X6 Global Talent Program in 2018 by the World Press Photo Foundation, participated in the Joop Swart Masterclass with World Press Photo, and received the POPCAP award (Africa Image, Basel, 2015). Zied also contributed as the Director of Photography for Fallega (2011), a documentary film documenting the Arab Spring in Tunisia. Furthermore, he actively participated in World Press Photo’s 2013 Reporting Change initiative and was a member of the collectives “Rawiya” and “Native.” Zied Ben Romdhane joined Magnum as a Nominee in 2019 and became a Member in 2025. 
Olivia Arthur, Magnum photographer
Olivia Arthur was born in London in 1980. She studied mathematics at Oxford University and photojournalism at the London College of Printing. She began working as a photographer in 2003 after moving to Delhi, and was based in India for two and a half years. In 2006, she left for Italy to take up a one-year residency with Fabrica, during which she began working on a series about women and cultural divides. Her first book, Jeddah Diary (2012), follows the lives of young women in Saudi Arabia. Her second book, Stranger (2015), is a journey into Dubai seen through the eyes of the survivor of a shipwreck. The ways people see themselves and connect to each other are themes Arthur explored in her project about sexuality in India, titled In Private/Mumbai, and through her commissions for Hull, City of Culture, and the Rome Collection about young people and intimacy during Covid. Arthur’s practice has also moved into an examination of the human relationship to the body, people’s physicality and its intersection with technology, working predominantly with large-format portraiture. Arthur gave a TED talk on this subject in 2020. She enjoys exploring different mediums and has made two short films and a children’s book using collage. Arthur’s work has been exhibited internationally and is included in institutional collections in the UK, USA, Germany, and Switzerland. She is co-founder of Fishbar, a publisher and space for photography in London. She became a member of Magnum Photos in 2013 and in 2020 was elected as its president. 
Mathilde Kauffman, photographer and videographer
Mathilde Kauffmann, born in 1997 is a photographer, videographer and writer from Bretagne now based in Marseille. Her visual work presents reality while exploring its boundaries. From documentary to portraits, her approach draws on the observation of human intimacy. She captures empty spaces and their silences, simple gestures, and discreet presences. Images with their open- ended narratives are an invitation to contemplation. She studied photography and audiovisual arts, and developed a visual style influenced by cinema and street photography. She expresses herself equally well in music videos as in more narrative editorial projects. 
