Up Close & Personal

hotographing my own family… my own experience. It was not a conscious decision. It was quite an organic and ordinary reaction, that of any new father. It didn’t occur to me that these photographs had anything to do with my ‘work’. But I now realize that these images were actually my life’s work and that every photograph I had made up to that moment was just a preparation to make these photographs of my family.” — Christopher Anderson © Christopher Anderson | Magnum Photos

o of the model. This photograph is taken.The 1940 diary of my father reads: ‘A beautiful woman resembles a flower - she is beautiful in its external form, she has vibrations and harmony… But be happy with the beauty without searching for depth.’ ” — Marco Bischof, son of Werner Bischof © Werner Bischof | Magnum Photos

from being a simple description and making it more real and significant.” — Elliott Erwitt © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos

ed bemusedly and said, ‘muy romantico.’ Looking again, I began to see that it does indeed strike a different note. Although inhabited by those deep shadows that characterize much of my border work, this particular photograph is quieter, more lyrical. It’s as if its human moments—the couple embracing, the father holding his child—somehow manage to keep the darkness at bay, at least briefly.Photographers don’t just find photographs; sometimes photographs find photographers. In retrospect, it hardly seems surprising that this photograph found me when it did—as I was falling for the remarkable woman and lyrical photographer who’s the love of my life.Three years later, we printed this photograph on our wedding invitations.” — Alex Webb © Alex Webb | Magnum Photos

y to expose layers in people that are not immediately visible, but nonetheless shape who we are and give meaning to our lives. I try not to focus on how things look - but how they feel.Some of the people I photograph become my friends, others I share only a short moment with. The pictures are something that grow from these encounters. When I photograph I try to work by instinct as so as to connect and involve myself with the places I visit and the people I meet. Taking snapshots supports the feeling of something unpredictable and playful. I believe it is when pictures are unconsidered and irrational that they come to life; that they evolve from showing to being.In this photo, Miriam and her grandfather don't talk - but I feel it right away. The touch between the young smooth skin and the old wrinkled. Miriam and her grandfather take care of each other. They take care of their memories and the time they have together.” — Jacob Aue Sobol © Jacob Aue Sobol | Magnum Photos

ittle did my 11-year old daughter and I realise, at the time, that this beautiful animal was in fact ‘Blanchon’, the hero of a very famous Canadian documentary film, 'Of Whales, the Moon and Men', directed by humanist film-maker, Pierre Perrault. Eventually, Pierre became a dear friend. He was an incredible filmmaker, in the style of Leacock, Wiseman and Rouch.This image is like a cocktail of intimacy, bringing together my daughter, the great animal, and, subliminally, my friend Pierre, our shared passion for humanist approaches and documentary films.I remember the guard of the aquarium was furious because Blanchon was a very curious animal, clearly happy to see somebody so close to the aquarium in a place not usually allowed to tourists. The other tourists, politely standing where they were supposed to, looked on in envy...” — Jean Gaumy © Jean Gaumy | Magnum Photos

t into this little girl's frame of mind for a second. Whenever I feel, I somehow am there with that person, and I feel something that connects me. That is what I define as an intimate image, more than if the picture is really up close or in your face.” — Jonas Bendiksen © Jonas Bendiksen | Magnum Photos

graphy neutralizes discernment, tames brutal instincts, and induces the risk of safe intimacy and deceit under the autocratic reign of appearance.I choose to adopt hacker strategies, forging a secret, illicit, immoral language, deconstructing protocols built by the hegemonic ideology with the explicit intention of contaminating, perverting and destroying it. The act of photographing accepts no compromise: it involves pushing the physical limits of life and possessing the world through absorption and adsorption.Photography is a source of disorder because it carries within itself the seeds of action, unleashing the rage that makes bearable fear and desire. To be, to love, to think, to suffer are no longer enough. One has to be a saint, or a mad man.” — Antoine d’Agata © Antoine d’Agata | Magnum Photos

or me perhaps was the rumour that whites were attending, this at a time when multi-racial gatherings were illegal in South Africa. I had just arrived. Standing in the doorway surveying the scene, I noticed the warm interplay between the African couple in front of the jukebox with a white guy at the table behind. Sometimes these moments catch one unprepared; happily for me I’d arrived with a camera around my neck and was able to capture the moment.” — Ian Berry © Ian Berry | Magnum Photos

dary within visible reality and intimacy with people, the moment in between fascination for a subject and its rational understanding. It's what I call a relation of intimacy.’” — Jérôme Sessini © Jérôme Sessini | Magnum Photos

ing what you’re already doing.’ Believe it or not, they usually did. Once I even photographed a veteran prostitute on the job with one of her regulars. They didn’t mind. Afterward, when asked if I had gotten the pictures, I said that it had happened a bit fast; he then invited me to come back next Tuesday, when he would arrange for me to have all the time I needed.”---Excerpt from: Wayne F. Miller, Chicago’s South Side, 1946-1948 © Wayne Miller | Magnum Photos

twise romantics. They love their country but are also at odds with it. They want to work, but not for a system that does not properly reward that work. They, as many Cubans, know how to hustle but are not hustlers at heart; they do it to survive. Having a foreign friend is of much value to them because they want to communicate with the modern world. They saw me as a useful bridge and perhaps in exchange, allowed me to closely observe and record their lives. A preacher once told me that people want to have a voice, they want to share their opinion with the world, but not always a face. A face makes some things too real, too visible. But I have found that the kind of sharing that allows both parties to deeply benefit builds trust. With trust, sometimes that face is forgotten, the world is forgotten, and we are allowed to be present, to be intimate.” — Michael Christopher Brown © Michael Christopher Brown | Magnum Photos

— Carl De Keyzer © Carl De Keyzer | Magnum Photos

ars and in cafes, but at some point I wanted to also expose their feelings. For a long time I juggled the idea of how to create a different way of intimacy. After some failed attempts, I decided to turn my own apartment into a studio, and have neighbours and friends come over to have their portraits taken.Naghmeh is one of the most popular young women in Tehran, she's beautiful, smart and funny. I took pictures of her in total silence. Suddenly, her face expressionless, tears started welling up in her eyes, as if she was trying to show me something. Afterwards she said goodbye quietly and left.Later, when I had the image framed, one of the glass plates had a scratch on it and the framer asked if he could keep it. He hung it in his shop. Customers debated, wondering why she was so sad. ‘You could write a book with all the stories people come up with when they see this portrait,’ the framer told me.I never asked her why she cried.” — Newsha Tavakolian © Newsha Tavakolian | Magnum Photos

ded up at Çagan Sekercioglu's bird banding station in a village near the Armenian border. Çagan is an ornithologist and conservation biologist. The challenge was to make a portrait of him together with the tiny birds his team was banding—people and birds exist on different scales. At his suggestion, borne out of the time we spent together, I stood outside of his trailer while he released the tiny birds from inside.” — Carolyn Drake © Carolyn Drake | Magnum Photos

rd awaiting transformation into apple crumble. Phoebe, the gentle labrador, noses around the back door curious to see what’s going on. Today, Billy is starting university. Time flies, but photographs allow our intimate moments to stay on as cherished memories. Photography that is intimate always conveys a sense of the photographer being not just there, but included, welcome, accepted.” — Stuart Franklin © Stuart Franklin | Magnum Photos

in 1968 that I photographed her. Her passionate voice shocks the listener with its power, and I have used her voice as an inspiration for my photography, trying to shock my audience into feeling what I do when I snap a photograph.” — Paul Fusco © Paul Fusco | Magnum Photos

“Intimacy can manifest itself in a photograph literally, showing actual intimacy between people, or be implied in the image through an act of deep internalization. A bit more mysterious... A tease maybe?For years as a photojournalist my job was to be didactic, but now my tack has changed: I still believe in bearing witness, yet I am way more inclined to leave my audience with unanswered questions. Why does everything need to be resolved? Isn't there great pleasure in imagining what might be happening?I am too involved, too much a part of the story, for my work to still be considered photojournalism. Yet perhaps the new work may still fall into some interpretations of documentary. I don't care. I'm simply on a river that's taking me wherever it goes.” — David Alan Harvey © David Alan Harvey | Magnum Photos

the smell of the air, the color of the dirt, the cut of a certain shadow, even the lines in someone’s hand. I absorb it. Sometimes I can close my eyes, and I can still see it.” — Matt Black © Matt Black | Magnum Photos

e, and disperse her belongings. The day after the funeral while my sister, brother and I were clearing out my parents home, I looked up and saw Ruby playing amongst the curtains. She was 8 then, and having her there is what helped me through it all. Photography did too.” — Jim Goldberg © Jim Goldberg | Magnum Photos

, a meeting place of young people in their cars, bringing booze and sometimes drugs. The sun was setting and the towers across the river were glowing before it became too dark to take more pictures.” — Thomas Hoepker © Thomas Hoepker | Magnum Photos

r me to describe really and I can only say that it is something that I feel through my instincts, that is if at all I feel it. In the end, it does not matter who or what I photograph or have an encounter with; it could be my mother, a stranger, a stray cat that happened to trust me enough to allow me to stay there in its presence or simply a joyful moment spent with friends in the sea. Ani and Suneira in Varkala.” — Sohrab Hura © Sohrab Hura | Magnum Photos

ht.During the 60’s, I had a very large flat in London which was continually full of ‘staying’ friends. One evening, by mistake, I opened the door on intimacy. I was extremely embarrassed and uncomfortable—they thought it very funny.” — David Hurn © David Hurn | Magnum Photos

between Kabul and Baghdad with an easiness of mind and spirit that years later proved innately flawed. My own role as a photographer often came into question, and during that time I became an expert at camouflaging the fact that I was lost, unable to see past the headlines and deadlines.I am fond of this photograph because it reminds me of the time that I finally started to breathe, and appreciate the moment when you relinquish control and surrender yourself to the moment. I learned this lesson in Haiti, and for that I am forever grateful.” — Moises Saman © Moises Saman | Magnum Photos

got very close, I remained on the outside. The glass wall of language separated us. I could see inside, but not really understand what I was seeing.It might have been better if I knew what was going on here. Or maybe not, because in my ignorant curiosity I had to look harder, and let my imagination play. So we became more intimate, in an unexpected way.” — Richard Kalvar © Richard Kalvar | Magnum Photos

— David Seymour © David Seymour | Magnum Photos

eople in 2010. I was upset that my pictures couldn’t hint at the scale of the destruction I’d just witnessed. It felt too vast for photography. We decided to go to New Orleans, which felt like a good spot of purgatory before heading back home. A friend of Christian’s joined us, and we headed north. As we neared the Alabama border Christian whipped the car over to pick up a pretty-looking hitchhiker. When we pulled up, her two companions and their dog ran out of the woods and jumped into the car. We stopped at a shack bar on stilts in the outskirts of Mobile and played pool. They said they would part ways from us. One of them had run into trouble in New Orleans and was wary of going back. I took this picture after leaving the bar. The girl leaned forward for a moment to get more comfortable and her hair fell over her eyes just as the late afternoon light began to shine through the clouds. I took a few frames and, as always, the moment was gone almost before I’d even noticed it.” — Peter van Agtmael © Peter van Agtmael | Magnum Photos

right smile is my mother.As the wind blew up her skirt, and before Marilyn made the move famous, I stopped hiding behind her. I was 15 years old, but it didn't take me seven years to develop the itch to take pictures!” — Guy Le Querrec © Guy Le Querrec | Magnum Photos

to ride their bikes around and have fun. Main Street was lined with parked motorcycles, their owners perched on the seats watching the parade of roaring bikes go by. Looking for pictures, I had my eye on this female biker with a beautiful body when a male with a beautiful body approached her. Cutting out the faces, I concentrated on the handshake: the first encounter of two bodies. When I left, they were engrossed in deep conversation. Who knows what happened after that?” — Constantine Manos © Constantine Manos | Magnum Photos

eaningful statement for me, and publish it as a book which later came out as Echoes.In that summer my mother died—it was the defining event of my year, and at the funeral I took some photographs. Here my brother kisses our mother farewell. It is a very private moment and I struggled for a while over whether I should publish the photograph in my book, and whether to put it in the Magnum archive and make it public.In the course of my life working in photojournalism, I have often photographed other people’s suffering, their sorrow, their loss, their pain, in famines, in wars, in disasters. Some of these photographs have been published in papers and magazines and books, for this is the reality of many people’s lives. So, having entered their lives to make public their situation, what right do I have to withhold my own loss? It is not comfortable, but neither should it be.” — Chris Steele-Perkins © Chris Steele-Perkins | Magnum Photos

ased on my work in the wars of Central America— Nicaragua and El Salvador. I wasn’t interested in war really, but in how families overcame strife to celebrate the intimacies of every day life. I never photographed my own family at that time with any intent, other than perhaps, to recognize those same moments.” — Larry Towell © Larry Towell | Magnum Photos

rips to Guangzhou, China, in 1992. The safety grating protecting the driver divided us. She was really beautiful. Her sultry features were enhanced by the night lights, like in a movie. I'm sure I found the metal mesh annoying when I decided to take a picture of her, but its pattern created interesting contrasts on her face. Also, it prevented me from getting closer, perhaps too close, triggering some reaction in her, maybe a smile, or a self-conscious laugh. She was nearby and yet unreachable. She was so close, yet so far. Untouchable. That is how I remember the moment, but my memory is failing me here. Was she just another passenger, a stranger, or were we riding the cab together? The element of mystery, noticeable and enduring, is what still attracts me in that picture. I don't know anything about her, yet I was close to her then.” — Patrick Zachmann © Patrick Zachmann | Magnum Photos

“The presence of the photographer changes the atmosphere the moment the subject becomes aware of the camera... What I learned was not technique, but that if the photographer cares about the people before the lens and is compassionate, much is given. It is the photographer, not the camera, that is the instrument.” — Eve Arnold, from The Unretouched Woman. Knopf, 1976 © Eve Arnold | Magnum Photos

e return to their homes, close their doors and put their nightwear on. In between two days, when no one is looking, there is a little moment where the facade falls away.I find it very difficult to choose my most 'intimate photograph', because I experienced so many. People often shared their bed with me; I fell asleep while children and mamas were holding me tight, in a single-bed next to a very old Mexican woman who prayed for my family in the middle of the night. People invited me into Russian saunas and into American hot-tubs and when I was welcomed by an old couple in Bosnia, the man of the family died that night.But after consideration, I would like to share a photograph with you that is part of my book I am about to call it a day. While being together in …. 's bedroom and after photographing her, I realized something important. Photography is about sharing, it is a conversation that goes in two directions. It was not only me that observed her, but through me, she looked at herself. After a long time together in her bedroom and after this picture was taken, the woman stood up in her white night dress, crying intensely; she gave me a long hug and went to sleep.” — Bieke Depoorter © Bieke Depoorter | Magnum Photos

hotographers always try to capture the elusive moment of intimacy.” — Micha Bar-Am © Micha Bar Am | Magnum Photos

treet as a family. He's a strong young father and the tricycle is not a burden to carry for his children; he carries it as part of his family's togetherness. A photograph a photographer took on the open street of an intimate moment: a father being there for his kids, in a moment so intimate, they never knew it had been captured by a stranger with a camera.” — Elke Susannah Freed, daughter of Leonard Freed © Leonard Freed | Magnum Photos

eum. In 1956, a group of school children toured the building and viewed the bust of Lenin. After the group moved on, a little girl stayed behind in awe. Her expression gives away both intimidation and curiosity. Not only does this photograph capture a moment of intimacy between an object of art and its viewer, but, more importantly, it depicts the weight of history on a young innocent mind.” — Erich Lessing © Erich Lessing | Magnum Photos

resented his new love: Doudou - Édouard Dermit. Cocteau had left Paris the year before to put an end to his opium addiction and the frequent visits of the brigade mondaine prosecuting his drug use. It was a scenario all too familiar for List who had left Germany in 1936 after receiving threats from the Gestapo for being outspoken and gay. Many of his friends had to flee, or were sentenced and imprisoned. List handled his erotic images with utmost discretion. Full nudes are scarce. But this is not the reason why a naked man in front of a work of art is one of his most intimate images. It is its context. List documents Cocteau’s latest artwork by placing the naked Doudou in front of his lover’s life-size mural tapestry. With this, he blurs the line between fictional tapestry and naked reality, but also questions the cultural demarcation of one's private and public sphere as a personal or a political choice, while asserting the display of oppressed or even prohibited intimacy as a political statement.” — Peer-Olaf Richter, Herbert List Estate © Herbert List | Magnum Photos

s a unique and deep understanding of the people of Spain. This moment is intimate and powerful, as toreros usually refuse to be photographed during this time of preparation. It is not intrusive or voyeuristic but simply a softer and dignified view of the torero before the corrida. Inge's ability to break an unspoken boundary, especially being a female photographer, is a testament to the honest trust she is able to create between herself and Antonio.” — Sana Manzoor, Inge Morath Estate © Inge Morath | Magnum Photos

ith the London Blitz as it affected the lives of ordinary English people. He spent only a short time in London at the outbreak of the war before LIFE sent him to Africa to record the progress of the Free French under General de Gaulle against the Italians and the French loyal to the Vichy Government. His journey was to become the longest and most arduous photographic expedition ever undertaken in World War II, covering early wartime events in West Africa through Eritrea and Ethiopia to Iran, then back to the north-west frontier of India with the British Army, before coming back to Tobruk and the Western Desert. George only returned to England in 1945 after covering the German surrender at Luneburg. His coverage of war ended with the horrifying experience of entering Belsen. This smiling little boy was far too young to realize the horrors of the war to come but his smile reflects the bravery and cheerfulness shown by the people of London throughout those dark days, and the pride of all those young soldiers who marched off to war.” — Jinx Rodger, widow of George Rodger © George Rodger | Magnum Photos

of intimacy?He was doing a photo essay about California and what he called California’s state of mind. He came to see California in the 1960s as a spiritual, technical and aesthetic ‘lab’ that profoundly influenced the rest of the country. He hadn’t always liked this ‘lab’, initially calling it chaos; a place where up was down and right was left. But as the years passed and he spent more time working and shooting in California, Dennis changed and so did his images.One of the most striking things about this photograph is how much the male subject in the picture physically resembled Dennis. This image, always one of Dennis’s favorites, captured an ideal Dennis not only admired but also aspired to. The notion that romantic love, intimacy, surrounded by a verdant optimism, could raise you above the chaos of the ‘lab’ delighted Dennis and it became a philosophy he embraced for the rest of his life.” — Susan Richards, widow of Dennis Stock © Dennis Stock | Magnum Photos

only caught a fleeting glance of this couple’s intimate moment on an empty railway platform, hugging, playing, kissing, arguing, fighting… who knows? They were oblivious to the passing train. An accelerated version of what often happens traveling and covering stories: entering people’s lives, spending some time with them, and moving on….” — Thomas Dworzak © Thomas Dworzak | Magnum Photos

were packing up, I found myself alone in the kitchen with the ironing board, the washing, the flowery curtains, and a large bear lying upside down in the middle of the floor as if dead. I quietly set up my tripod and took a picture. It felt as if I was stealing a moment, and if anyone had come in, I would have had to explain why I was doing it… However, this was the image that came out of that day in the English countryside, it felt secret, surreal and devious; as if I had stolen something intimate and personal: the domestic landscape of a mother doing her best to keep life in order.” — Peter Marlow © Peter Marlow | Magnum Photos

usic is good, when the music gets intimate, it gets so close to your skin that it penetrates your mind, drags it through such a variety of emotions. There is a proximity, triggering direct, straightforward emotions that the limited resources of photography couldn’t ever dream of achieving. A photograph can only, sometimes, show that abandonment to music.” — John Vink © John Vink | Magnum Photos

n them.In Saudi Arabia, it is very unusual for outsiders to be allowed into Saudi homes at all, so I was very lucky to be able to see these private worlds. Photographing them was very sensitive: they do not want people to see their personal spaces, and the women, particularly, are very private. Yet the women I met wanted the outside world to see how they live, to know that their reality is often not as different from the rest of the world as we may think.A paradoxical challenge for me was to find ways to show these scenes whilst also protecting the identity and privacy of the women, to be intimate and yet not to fully reveal their faces.” — Olivia Arthur © Olivia Arthur | Magnum Photos

just as their story dissolves in the sands of time. Such minimalism speaks to me, it puts me in a state of blissful melancholy, plunging me into thought and clearing my thoughts at the same time. It makes me think about my ancestors, my children, the fact that I'm a part of a whole, and the whole is me, allowing me to dissolve in the universal matter and spirit.This choice of photo, from the endless variety of my archives, is more a choice of audience: those who feel the same emotion in this moment.” — Gueorgui Pinkhassov © Gueorgui Pinkhassov | Magnum Photos

“It was my second shoot at the former Maze Prison in Northern Ireland, and I hadn't a clue how to photograph it, what camera, what approach.... I was lost, and at that time, completely insecure about my own practice... Could I ever find my own voice, make something that could be actually good?On a winter morning, alone in the 360-acre prison site (ready for new prisoners in case the Peace Process collapsed), standing with a 5 x 4 inch plate camera that I had bought for virtually nothing in a bomb damaged sale in Belfast when I was 14. I set up the camera and focused, my head under the cloth, and realised, I was in the place where the bomber mostly likely had spent a lot of time.” — Donovan Wylie © Donovan Wylie | Magnum Photos

lai. Donbei, the Northeast of China, played a historically important role in the Sino-Japanese relationship. Imperial Japan established its puppet regime of Manchuria in 1932. And everybody knows how the Paicific War ended in August, 1945. That is why I paid special attention and emphasis to the region.Donbei is very characteristic in the winter. It gets so cold in mid-winter that the temperature in Jiamusi, the center of China’s timber industry, reaches 35 degrees below zero centigrade easily. Songhua Jiang River runs through the center of the city: it completely freezes over. Even a tank, I believe, can cross the river.Every morning, courageous swimmers jump in the river for a minute or two. No surprise that their skin turns red immediately. But the onlookers - including this photographer with a winterized Leica - felt even colder, in sympathy.” — Hiroji Kubota © Hiroji Kubota | Magnum Photos

inting. They were the sensual reflection of what was going on in my own life.” — Harry Gruyaert © Harry Gruyaert | Magnum Photos

er permission about returning to the area on the next day in order to make a portrait of her with my medium format camera. I saw something in this young woman that could have been my life but for good fortune and the grace of God.She lived in an apartment consisting for the most part of one large room. There wasn’t much light in the room but I could see in the dim light other people who were sitting and some who seemed to be sleeping. They could have been friends or family. As I made the portrait on that next morning, I could see an angelic light of hopeful possibility for a better future in her face and for her child. It made me think of the pathways I had traveled in my own life and inside my quiet mind – I wished her the best of all the good luck that could possibly come her way.” — Eli Reed © Eli Reed | Magnum Photos

onal or emotional connection with. Rather, the idea of intimacy finds itself in the projection of the viewers’ own emotions triggered by subtle recognizable details, gestures, glances, actions and poses all brought together in an aesthetically-coherent, emotionally-charged photograph.The image Yoyo seems to portray a transgender teenager who has just woken up from her sleep, with a roommate still dreaming by her feet. She is nude and photographed from a distance, with strong yet delicate artificial lighting, just as she rubs her eyes. A meticulously choreographed scene of a supposed intimate moment, yet rationally constructed according to specific visual criteria.Perhaps the intimacy in my work finds itself outside of the frame, in the relationship with people before and after a scene is photographed. The mutual consent to being part of a still, momentary connection mediated by the camera.” — Max Pinckers © Max Pinckers | Magnum Photos

1948 Republican and Democratic conventions when he was barely out of college at Harvard University. Also by this time, he had already completed two years of service in the Army. Burt captured many fiery, passionate and unselfconscious moments on the convention floor with the delegates. I was very sorry that he didn’t live to see Barack Obama get elected in 2008. Burt was a big believer in Barack’s socially liberal and democratic sensibilities.” — Elena Glinn, widow of Burt Glinn © Burt Glinn | Magnum Photos

ursue their personal work, the photographs that engage their feelings and that provide satisfaction, ‘on the side.’ I have been very fortunate. The photo essays I shot for Life and other magazines not only gave me a steady, albeit modest, income but also were my personal work. For me there was never any distinction between commercial and personal. I worked on stories that interested and excited me, stories about which I had strong feelings and high hopes, and I directed all my talents and energies into that work.” — From Cornell Capa. Peter Fetterman Gallery, 2002 © Cornell Capa © International Center of Photography | Magnum Photos

me into her modest abode with immense generosity and trust. Among her few belongings, there was this bird; a toy that someone had left there. It stuck out, as it was perhaps the only thing that didn’t have some very specific use, so I asked her. Her eyes lit with joy. She asked me to follow her outside, to show me all the things her bird could do in plain daylight. And there she stood, on the little terrace overlooking the vast sea, playing with her bird as innocent and blissful as a small child.” — Nikos Economopoulos © Nikos Economopoulos | Magnum Photos

owever brief their encounter. Tim met Jonathan on the streets of Kinshasa in 2001. Jonathan had been living on the streets for five years, having been bullied by his stepmother. Tim’s notes tell us that his dream was to learn to write and to be a good father.” — Stephen Mayes, Tim Hetherington Trust © Tim Hetherington | Magnum Photos

ham, was severely affected by the recession yet, despite this, many residents continued to make considerable efforts to look their best against a backdrop of crumbling concrete and vacant shops.Working with a (female) assistant, we’d ask appropriate pedestrians if I might photograph their shoes. This was, to say the least, an unusual request and the performative nature of my method - lying prostrate on the ground in reverence - only added to the tension of the moment.A year later this picture was used on an enormous banner hanging outside the local art gallery to advertise the exhibition. Quite by chance, an elderly couple walking past recognised their daughter’s shoes (and presumably her ankles too). I can only imagine their surprise, but Samantha duly appeared at the opening the following evening… in the same footwear.My own daughter, Chilli, recognised her shoes immediately, and exclaimed: ‘Daddy! Samantha’s here… But she doesn’t LOOK right!’ From this simple image of red kitten heels and slightly puffy ankles, Chilli had constructed the rest of Samantha in her imagination. Needless to say, she was wrong.(NB: On Magnum’s website the keywords for this picture, written by an external organization and based entirely on what is seen or implied in the image, includes the term ‘Young Adult’. This too is inaccurate).” — Mark Power © Mark Power | Magnum Photos