Stuart Franklin Cyclists in the rain. Shanghai, China. 1993.
“For my text I choose the last stanza of the poem “Let There Be Peace” by Lemn Sissay:
Let there be peace
Let tears evaporate to form clouds, cleanse (...)
themselves
And fall into reservoirs of drinking water.
Let harsh memories burst into fireworks that melt
In the dark pupils of a child’s eyes
And disappear like shoals of silver darting fish,
And let the waves reach the shore with a
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”
– Stuart Franklin © Stuart Franklin
Elliott Erwitt Valencia, Spain. 1952.
“The work I care about is terribly simple. I observe, I try to entertain, but above all I want pictures that are emotional. Little else interests me in photography. Today, (...)
so much is being done by unemotional people, or at least it looks that way... I mean, work that’s fascinating and fun and clever and technically brilliant. But if it’s not personal, then it misses what interesting photography is about.”
– Elliott Erwitt, in Personal Exposures, 1988 © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos
Bruce Davidson Protest March from Selma to Montgomery. Alabama, USA. 1965.
“This photograph was taken during one of the 1965 protest marches from Selma to the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery. Martin Luther (...)
King Jr. led a group of African-American, non-violent marchers to exercise their constitutional right to vote, in defiance of segregationist repression. This was a watershed moment in the U.S. civil rights movement. I came across this young demonstrator, wrapped in a flag, protesting racism; behind him is Father Sherrill Smith of San Antonio, a white catholic priest who protested against injustice for most of his life.”
– Bruce Davidson © Bruce Davidson | Magnum Photos
Dennis Stock The jazz musician Louis Armstrong in his dressing room at the Latin Casino. Philadelphia, USA. 1958.
“Dennis said Louis Armstrong was one of the most confident men he’d ever met — which was why (...)
the musician had had no problem with Dennis taking this photo of him in his dressing room in his underwear and wearing this hair covering.”
– Susan Richards, Estate of Dennis Stock © Dennis Stock | Magnum Photos
Danny Lyon Bob Dylan behind the SNCC office. Greenwood, Mississippi. 1963.
The SNCC held a Freedom Concert that day out in a field. Greenwood was a major cotton town, and the audience was field hands and hou (...)
sehold servants mostly. I was the SNCC staff photographer. The kids then in Greenwood would say, “I’m in the movement,” because Greenwood was the center of the civil rights movement in the Delta. That day, for a Freedom Concert, SNCC had brought down the Freedom Singers, Theo Bikel, Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan to perform. The big responses at the concert were for the Freedom Singers and for Theo Bikel, who sang and talked about the bond of oppression which his own background shared with the people in the field. “Blowin’ in the Wind” had been released that May and was already a huge hit, though I doubt any of the tenant farmers had ever heard it. I was fascinated by Dylan, so when I ran into him playing behind the SNCC office, I made this picture. Behind him was Mendy Samstein, a friend from the University of Chicago, Willie Blue — another close friend, a kind of hipster, from Greenwood — and listening at his knee was Bernice Reagon, future head of Sweet Honey in the Rock.
– Danny Lyon © Danny Lyon | Magnum Photos
Cornell Capa © International Center of Photography John F. Kennedy campaigning. New York City, USA. 1960.
“Images at their passionate and truthful best are as powerful as words can ever be. If they alone cannot bring change, they can at least pro (...)
vide an understanding mirror of man's actions, thereby sharpening human awareness and awakening conscience.”
– Cornell Capa © Cornell Capa © International Center of Photography | Magnum Photos
Constantine Manos Daufuskie Island, South Carolina, USA. 1962.
“The United States is a mixture of races, religions, and different points of view. Our survival and growth are based on respect by all, for the views o (...)
f all. Photographs provide a bridge, which brings all people together. They can make us smile. I believe that this photograph of a young boy in a tree in South Carolina is such a photograph.”
– Constantine Manos © Constantine Manos | Magnum Photos
Carl De Keyzer Monument to the WWII resistance movement. Durres, Albania. 1995.
“When I arrived in Albania for the first time in 1995, the country was not ready to host visitors. After years of brutal commun (...)
ism that completely closed it off from the outside world, only a few rooms were available to visitors in the entire country.
After crossing a very surreal border post (with a very corrupt guard) in an old camper van, we reached Korce, where we stayed in the only hotel in town, a 12-storey building with only four rooms available on the eighth floor. The elevator was not working.
Later in the trip, when visiting Durres we stayed in a private room together with a retired general who could not stop talking about the glory days of Albanian communism when it withstood all pressure from the outside world.
Looking out of my window I could see a monument to the WWII resistance movement with children playing on top of it. I could not resist going over there.
In 2011, I revisited the Albanian coast. The whole area is now full of new hotels, terraces and bars.”
– Carl De Keyzer © Carl De Keyzer | Magnum Photos
Zied Ben Romdhane Kids playing with sand. El Faouar, Tunisia. October 14, 2018.
"The Tunisian government offers land, housing, and agricultural advantages to incentivize nomads to settle in this territory. However (...)
, despite the socio-economic efforts of local governments to resist sand encroachment, it is still difficult for people to live in the region."
– Zied Ben Romdhane © Zied Ben Romdhane | Magnum Photos
Robert Capa © International Center of Photography American crewmen stand in front of a B-17 bomber: one of the first 300 to be brought overseas by the US Army Air Corps. The aircraft is being prepared to take off from a Royal Air Force base for a (...)
daylight bombing raid over occupied France. Great Britain. 1942.
"To cover a war you must hate somebody or love somebody; you must have a position or you cannot stand what goes on.”
– Robert Capa © Robert Capa © International Center of Photography | Magnum Photos
Erich Hartmann Somewhere in the foothills of the Pyrenees, south of Toulouse. France. 1979.
“In the autumn of 1979, Erich and I were in France where he had just finished a long assignment. We decided to spend t (...)
he two weeks before his next assignment traveling clockwise around the periphery of the country by train. For this trip Erich bought a new auto-focus camera, so small that it fit in his shirt pocket.
On a dark October morning we started our journey, taking a train eastward from Paris and stopping for the night at Annecy, near the Swiss border.
With our train passes we were free from reservations, and could decide upon plans spontaneously. With only a small suitcase each, that small camera, and lots of film we would arrive, walk to the nearest hotel, explore the town's surroundings, then determine our next destination.
Once doors are closed and it is moving, a train becomes a world of neither here nor there: fellow passengers are strangers closely observed, but wholly unknown, and soon to disappear to resume their own lives. The train continues its anonymous way, becoming specific only at each station stop as some passengers leave, others come aboard and another cast of characters is assembled.
There was eventually a large exhibition of photographs from this trip, ‘Train Journey’, all taken with that tiny camera Erich bought before we set out.”
–Ruth Bains Hartmann, Estate of Erich Hartmann © Erich Hartmann | Magnum Photos
Paul Fusco Cesar Chavez, leader of the NFWA. California, USA. 1966.
“In March of 1966 the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (a merger of the National Farm Workers Association, or NFWA, and the Agricu (...)
ltural Workers Organizing Committee, or AWOC), called a strike against California grape producers who refused to recognize the union, which was also a protest against years of poor pay and working conditions. César Chávez - founder of NFWA along with Dolores Huerta - led 75 Latinx and Filipinx farm workers on a 340-mile march from Delano to Sacramento. The strike lasted more than five years and grew to include an international consumer boycott of grapes supplied by non-union producers. The solidarity that Chávez and Huerta cultivated by training and organizing thousands of farm workers resulted in a victory, with the United Farm Workers becoming a recognized union — the first contract between producers and the farmworkers they employed in US history. This solidarity was vital to the success of the union, as Chávez stated, ‘from the depth of need and despair, people can work together, can organize themselves to solve their own problems and fill their own needs with dignity and strength.’”
- Marina Fusco Nims, on behalf of Paul Fusco © Paul Fusco | Magnum Photos
George Rodger Tamanrasset, Sahara, Algeria. 1957.
“While on assignment for an oil company in Southern Algeria, George made his way, with only limited film stock, in his Land Rover to the stunning Hoggar Mounta (...)
ins where he met with members of the Tuareg people near Tamanrasset. Women are shown here celebrating the birth of a noble child by chanting and clapping their hands.
This image demonstrates the skill George adopts in capturing the perfect composition of a chance encounter, during a brief moment in time, in challenging circumstances.”
– Jon Rodger, Estate of George Rodger © George Rodger | Magnum Photos
Chien-Chi Chang Immigrants sleeping on a fire escape to avoid summer heat. New York City, USA. 1998.
“Solidarity is a word that is usually written large. To some it might mean a great victory by the people.
Bu (...)
t I have seen it in smaller settings. On the hottest night of a New York summer,
in a tenement building by the Manhattan Bridge, outside rooms too sweltering to sleep in, these men found - and shared in - a sense of solidarity on a fire escape. The goal was not grand. They just yearned for a breeze.”
– Chien-Chi Chang © Chien-Chi Chang | Magnum Photos
Marilyn Silverstone Surfboat teams are needed to unload ships that are anchored further out at sea. The surf is very rough, and this is the only way of unloading goods at Accra. Accra, Ghana. 1960.
“In 1959, a young (...)
Marilyn Silverstone went to India on a magazine assignment and stayed for 14 years. After working for 25 years as a photojournalist, at the age of 50, she became a Tibetan Buddhist nun, dedicating her life to helping other Buddhist nuns and her teacher, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, in Nepal and Bhutan. She said, ‘If I had not become a photographer, I would never have become a Buddhist.’ Her work reflects her innate compassion and conviction that we need to recognize our interdependence and work together to reach a common goal.
In today’s highly interdependent world, individuals and nations can no longer resolve many of their problems by themselves. We need one another: it is our collective and individual responsibility to protect and nurture the global family, to support its weaker members, and to preserve and tend to the environment in which we all live. – The Fourteenth Dalai Lama.”
– Vivian Kurz, estate of Marilyn Silverstone © Marilyn Silverstone | Magnum Photos
Peter Marlow The Danish artist, Olafur Eliasson's installation of a huge artificial sun in the Turbine Hall. Tate Modern. London. Great Britain. 2003.
“Global catastrophes remind us we are part of a vast and (...)
powerful universe, illuminating the insignificance of our differences. Differences we must strive to overcome.”
– Estate of Peter Marlow © Peter Marlow | Magnum Photos
Nikos Economopoulos Havana, Cuba. 2017.
“Cuba isn’t the utopia of our collective imagination. But sometimes in the afternoon, in the streets of Havana, when the derelict playground is full of kids of mixed colors an (...)
d races, when the warmth of human interaction melts all social distance and breaks down stereotypes, when everyone somehow depends on everyone else, what Che Guevara said about ‘practicing solidarity’ starts making sense. Sometimes in the afternoon, in the streets of Havana, one catches a glimpse of utopia.”
– Nikos Economopoulos © Nikos Economopoulos | Magnum Photos
Wayne Miller Father and son at Lake Michigan. Chicago, Illinois, USA. 1947.
“Expressing oneness was a central tenet of Wayne’s life and professional practice. He showed that here, on the shore of Chicago’s La (...)
ke Michigan in 1947. The image is a reflection of the intimacy, the comfort, and the respect he felt in his personal family life.
The statement below was written by Carl Sandburg for the seminal 1955 MoMA exhibition, Family of Man, which Wayne himself helped Edward Steichen to curate.
There is only one man in the world
and his name is All Men.
There is only one woman in the world
and her name is All Women.
There is only one child in the world
and the child’s name is All Children.”
– Jeanette Miller, Estate of Wayne Miller © Wayne Miller | Magnum Photos
Guy Le Querrec The Big Foot Memorial Ride. From Green Grass staging point to Lloyd Jentzen Ranch, located 9 miles south of Lantry, on the Cheyenne River reservation. Fifth day of the journey, halfway through a 25 (...)
-mile ride. South Dakota, USA. Between 1.00pm and 3.00pm, Wednesday 19th December, 1990.
“Strangely enough, the word ’solidarity’ appears in the French language, thirty years prior to Christopher Columbus’s discovery of an unknown continent in 1492 that would go on to be named America. Four centuries of devastation followed, destroying peoples and cultures in the name of an unstoppable, greedy, colonization.
The massacre at Wounded Knee, by the 7th Cavalry, of Lakotas — mostly women, children and elders — seeking refuge after the murder of Sitting Bull, sealed, on December 29, 1890, what official history wanted to see as the final act of the misnamed Indian wars. On February 27, 1973, the American Indian Movement offered the world a rebirth of Indian resistance and solidarity. At the same place, in December 1990, the Lakota organized a two-week ride in the footsteps of their massacred ancestors. In the freezing cold, Guy Le Querrec was the photographic witness of this intense celebration where every moment demonstrated extraordinary solidarity against the disappearing of people by history. Here, photography, to paraphrase Sitting Bull, acts as ’an awakened seed’."
– Jean Rochard © Guy Le Querrec | Magnum Photos
Cristina de Middel Jorge Luna, a professional Mexican pole vault jumper trains by the border fence on the beach of Tijuana. Tijuana, Mexico. 2018.
“I read on the internet that we shouldn’t be scared of what we don' (...)
t understand, but I probably shouldn't be relying on the internet to understand anything at all. Because of all the noise, these are confusing times on the surface, but also times where there is deep clarity in how to do good, and how to be potent and forceful in supporting the necessary changes to paradigms. The comfortable absurdity of the system is finally being questioned and it feels like there is room for dreaming of a future where the new logic that organizes the world is not that of the market, of historical power, of habit or of fear.”
– Cristina de Middel © Cristina de Middel | Magnum Photos
Elliott Landy Jimi Hendrix. Fillmore East, New York City, USA. 1968.
“On May 10, 1968 I was photographing at the Fillmore East and The Jimi Hendrix Experience was the second act. After shooting a long set by (...)
Sly and The Family Stone I was exhausted and decided to go home, thinking that I would “get Hendrix another time.”
I packed my four heavy cameras, two exposure meters and some rolls of film into my two bags and headed towards the rear exit. Just as I was about to press down on the metal bar to open the exit door, Hendrix started playing. I was transfixed, stood there for a minute or so, and then walked back into the theater — standing at the rear, behind the audience, to listen.
The music was so deep and gripping that I felt compelled to capture the experience. I took a few shots from where I was standing, and then, despite my exhaustion, unpacked everything, draped the cameras around my neck, walked down to the front of the stage and photographed the remainder of the performance. I’m really glad I did, because after that I never had another chance.”
– Elliott Landy © Elliott Landy | Magnum Photos
Christopher Anderson President Barack Obama in the private dining room of the White House. Washington, DC. USA. 2016.
“It's hard not to be discouraged. I search for glimpses of hope that hate will not win out. As fr (...)
ustrated and angry as I am at the moment by the face of America, I do find comfort in the fact that it is still a place that could elect a man named Barack Hussein Obama. That means something. I am grateful that my children were able to witness that America.
I am told that this was the last portrait that President Obama sat for in the White House (the occasion was for the cover of Wired magazine and he was guest editing the issue as a way to speak about his post-presidency interests). It feels a little silly to say that it was one of my more memorable moments as a photographer. Of course, it was. And full disclosure: I voted for Barack Obama and I would vote for him again if I could, so I admit I am not the most objective. But I was sincerely struck by the way he treated everybody in the room with dignity, for what it is worth. I hope this portrait reflects something about the humanity of the person that I encountered.”
– Christopher Anderson © Christopher Anderson | Magnum Photos
Herbert List Running into the sea. North Sea, Germany. 1934.
“Solidarity is not a matter of altruism. Solidarity comes from the inability to tolerate the affront to our own integrity of passive or active col (...)
laboration in the oppression of others, and from the deep recognition of our most expansive self-interest. From the recognition that, like it or not, our liberation is bound up with that of every other being on the planet, and that politically, spiritually, in our heart of hearts we know anything else is unaffordable.”
– Aurora Levins Morales, in Medicine Stories: History, Culture, and the Politics of Integrity, 1998, quoted by the Estate of Herbert List © Herbert List | Magnum Photos
Matt Black Cattle auction. Alturas, California, USA. 2016.
"As I have traveled across the US, I have seen people determined to live their lives, even in the face of diminished opportunities and a fading Ame (...)
rican Dream. Those in power seek to divide us, but dreams can be restored and their realization no longer deferred."
Matt Black © Matt Black | Magnum Photos
Thomas Hoepker Muhammad Ali, boxing world heavyweight champion showing off his right fist. Chicago, USA. 1966.
“This picture came immediately to my mind when I was asked to consider the theme of ‘Solidarity’. (...)
The world right now is on edge in every sense and only by helping and encouraging each other will we get through this incredible global crisis. What picture would possibly better represent strength and the determination to fight for equality, unity and justice? As Muhammad Ali said in an interview with Playboy magazine in 1975:
‘I would like to be remembered as a black man who won the heavyweight title and who was humorous and who treated everyone right. As a man who never looked down on those who looked up to him and who helped as many of his people as he could — financially and also in their fight for freedom, justice and equality.’”
– Thomas Hoepker © Thomas Hoepker | Magnum Photos
W. Eugene Smith 'Simple Kindness,' Nurse Midwife. 1951. ©2020 The Heirs of W. Eugene Smith
“In 1951, Life magazine staff photographer W. Eugene Smith presented a radical idea for a photo essay to his editors: h (...)
e wanted to document the heroic efforts of a black nurse midwife, Maude Callen, to provide critical health care services to her impoverished community of 10,000 people in rural South Carolina.
The resulting story got a 12-page spread in the December 3, 1951, issue of Life. It was groundbreaking in every way. Up until that point, it was rare for a major US magazine to feature a profile of any black person other than celebrities, entertainers, and athletes. The caption for this photograph in Life read: "SIMPLE KINDNESS overwhelms an old man" — a man who had been paralyzed for more than 20 years. "He broke down and wept when Maude stopped in." The story ended with a plea for donations to build Maude a new clinic. Nearly $20,000 — an enormous sum for the time — poured in from all corners of the globe, mostly from ordinary readers who were moved by the story. The Maude Callen Clinic opened its doors in May 1953.
Life ran a follow-up story acknowledging the accomplishment. There could not be a more successful example of photojournalism showing solidarity with a community of color, making an impact in the lives of real people, and expanding the hearts and minds of compassionate observers. Smith wrote about Maude years later: "In the most special way, she is probably the greatest person I have been privileged to know.... She is, to me, near the pure ideal of what a life of affirmative contribution can be.... If this sounds like a love letter, it is."
– Kevin Eugene Smith, Estate of W. Eugene Smith © W. Eugene Smith | Magnum Photos
Bruno Barbey Barricade built out of movie posters. Rue Saint Michel/Rue de Lyon, near the Bastille, France. May 24, 1968.
“This photo was taken in May ‘68 during the student demonstrations in Paris.
On thi (...)
s occasion, the students were also protesting against the Vietnam War. I worked with natural light without using a flash. The students were building barricades with everything they could find on the street, including this movie poster.
By an astonishing chance, the French title of this movie “Police Sur La Ville” (“Police in the City”) reflected well the situation in Paris.”
– Bruno Barbey © Bruno Barbey | Magnum Photos
Werner Bischof Cham women returning from the market. Barau, Indochina. 1952.
“In 1952, Werner Bischof is in Indochina documenting life in the French colony during the war led by Ho Chi Minh’s nationalist moveme (...)
nt, the Viet Minh.
At one point he takes the famed ‘La Rafale’ (The Blast) armoured train from Saigon to Nha Trang, travelling through the jungle. About half way through the journey Werner steps from the train and approaches the village of Barau. He lets the train depart without him and stays for two weeks with the families in the village that he calls an “oasis of peace, in the midst of war”.
He wrote in his diary:
‘Here there are no shops, nothing to buy, but every day the Chams — a dying race, originally from Malaya — come here from their nearby village. They bring salt, fish, live geckos, turtles, onions: in short, things from the sea that can scarcely be found here. The girls balance their wares on their heads in tall straw baskets. They use the rails, supporting each other and dancing along the steel path.’”
– Marco Bischof, Estate of Werner Bischof © Werner Bischof | Magnum Photos
René Burri Mei-Liu River, China. 1985.
“Like never before in history, problems are basically the same for the rice farmer in China, the car builder in America, and the miner in Germany. The extreme social s (...)
hifts of our technological age, reflected also in our music, visual arts, literature and architecture, are painting a new face on humanity today. To explore this, and to convey some of it through thoughts and pictures, is how I see my task."
– René Burri: Excerpt from an interview with Leica Photography International, July 2013 © René Burri | Magnum Photos
Ernest Cole South Africa. c.1965.
“In such an atmosphere [as apartheid] it is difficult to develop or hold onto a feeling of your own worth. Not only is your very being under relentless attack, but all your f (...)
ellows are likewise under siege. You look vainly for heroes to emulate. The company of the besieged has a high casualty rate. Many already half-believe the white man's estimate of their worthlessness.”
– Ernest Cole, from the book House Of Bondage, 1967. © Ernest Cole | Magnum Photos
Raymond Depardon American athletes Larry James, Lee Evans and Ron Freeman (left to right) on the winner’s podium for the 400-meter relay at the 1968 Olympic Games. Mexico City, Mexico. 1968.
"Night has fallen, it (...)
is the month of October 1968.
The crowd at the Olympic Stadium in Mexico City is full of joy.
Tommie Smith and John Carlos have given their Black Power salutes, and now it is the turn of Lee Evans, Larry James and Ron Freeman to echo the gesture of protest and raise their fists at the 400-meter medal ceremony.”
– Raymond Depardon © Raymond Depardon | Magnum Photos
Leonard Freed | -scaled.jpg The March on Washington. Washington, D.C., USA. August 28, 1963.
“This is the day.
Bus-loads of marchers, Leonard Freed and I, his wife Brigitte, amongst them, in our very small Italian Fiat 600. (...)
People of all colors, of all ages, of all religions, singing ‘We shall overcome’.
Unforgettable, always, forever."
– Brigitte Freed, Estate of Leonard Freed © Leonard Freed | Magnum Photos
David Alan Harvey Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. July 10, 2014.
“I love shooting in Rio. The geography and the culture combine to make the city just flat-out theatrical. A natural stage rises out of the sea. Ipanema Beac (...)
h draws a confluence of cultures from the surrounding hillsides of both rich and poor, black and white. Everyone side-by-side, communing with the sea. It’s democratic. Not a thought is given to who belongs. Everyone does: they know it, and that is that. Here, a mixed couple embraces on Ipanema as a parkour artist flies into the air. All oblivious to one another, yet all respectful of another’s space. A moment of freedom and peace amid the chaos that is Rio.”
– David Alan Harvey © David Alan Harvey | Magnum Photos
Eli Reed Anti-racism March. Forsyth County, Georgia, USA. 1987.
“A small group of Afro-American protesters was racially attacked in Forsyth County, Georgia, in 1987. Captured by network television cameras (...)
covering the protest, the attack consisted of acts of physical, racist abuse perpetrated in a county known as an unsafe place for Afro-Americans after dark. Forsyth County was descended upon two weeks later by thousands of supporters from all over the country (estimated numbers ranged from 12,000 to 20,000), rallying in support of the original protesters who had been attacked while practicing their legal right to peaceful assembly.
I have covered protests in Austin, Texas, and spent two days in Houston during the George Floyd memorials. I saw people of all races together, extremely concerned about what is happening in the US. They saw in these moments of time the fact that we are living in deep waters capable of drowning our collective hopes and dreams. Committed support for the marginalized can strengthen bonds and encourage people to come together to make a difference. To dream of a seat at the table requires fewer words and more deeds, acting upon the courage to do the right thing. I have hopes that present generations of young white people will want to join with their black and brown family to affect substantial change!”
– Eli Reed © Eli Reed | Magnum Photos
Bob Henriques Crowds at the reflecting pools by the Washington Monument during the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, led by Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. Washington DC, USA. May 17th, 1957.
“Law and order exist for (...)
the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.”
– Dr Martin Luther King Jr., quoted by the Estate of Bob Henriques © Bob Henriques | Magnum Photos
Mikhael Subotzky Bonnita Sings. Mallies Household, Rustdene Township, Beaufort West. South Africa. 2006.
“I met the Mallies family in 2006 while working in Beaufort West, and am in contact with them to this day. T (...)
here is so much that I could say about this family, about the relationship I developed with all of them after starting to photograph Michelle, about Biksie rushing to hug me every time I arrived, and Michelle’s kids growing up... But this is one of the few photographs that I have taken that I don’t think needs words — it's all there in the gaze of Mrs Mallies, the tiny pin-up of Michelle’s school graduation photo on the wall, of uncle Joseph (soon to die of tuberculosis) resting in the corner, and of course cousin Bonnita singing the church hymns of her childhood.
Solidarity is a complex word, especially in relation to documentary photography. I am deeply ambivalent about this form’s relationship to social cohesion, to the unconscious motivations of both photographer and subject, and to the representational challenges when, as is so often the case, a white photographer makes images of black subjects. Despite all of these concerns, this image comes to mind when thinking about this theme, in relation to everything that is inscribed inside and outside of its frame, and the multiple relationships before and after its taking that somehow evoke the meaning of the word’s French root, solidarité – defined as ‘a communion of interests and responsibilities’.”
– Mikhael Subotzky © Mikhael Subotzky | Magnum Photos
David Hurn Tintern Forest. Tintern. Wales. G.B. 1976.
“Solidarity: We are at the edge of change, we must all engage. I am not a writer, others have expressed it better:
‘He who passively accepts evil is as (...)
much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.’
‘The time is always right to do what is right.’
So said Martin Luther King Jr..”
– David Hurn © David Hurn | Magnum Photos
Carolyn Drake Vallejo City Council Meeting. USA. 2017. © Carolyn Drake & Alicia Saddler
"A few years ago, after 21-year-old Angel Ramos was killed by policemen in Vallejo, I went with his family to a city counc (...)
il meeting where the community demanded access to body cam footage of the murder. My emotions boiled as I sat for hours waiting for our city council members to let Angel’s sister and others talk about their experiences with police violence. I could only imagine how Alicia felt sitting there, waiting. She later expressed that feeling by painting over my photograph of the council members turning their backs to us as they pledged allegiance to the flag of the United States of America."
Carolyn Drake
All proceeds from sales of this image beyond those donated by the Magnum collective to NAACP will be personally donated to F.A.M., an organization established by Alicia Saddler to support families in Vallejo affected by police violence. © Carolyn Drake | Magnum Photos
Steve McCurry Fishermen. Weligama. South coast, Sri Lanka. 1995.
“These fishermen off the South coast of Sri Lanka used this bygone traditional method to catch fish in shallow waters. Very few fishermen are sti (...)
ll keeping this tradition alive, as most of them have moved toward more modern methods. They demonstrate both independence and solidarity of community as they endeavor to provide sustenance for their families. Inherent in solidarity is the concept of responsibility to our fellow humans. This principle is especially relevant in these turbulent times.”
– Steve McCurry
"Fishermen along the southern coast of Sri Lanka cast their lines in the traditional way atop poles so they can work in shallow water without disturbing the fish." - George Eastman House
National Geographic Magazine. Vol. 191, No. 1, pgs. 110-111, January 1997, Sri Lanka: A Continuing Ethnic War Tarnishes the Pearl of the Indian Ocean.
final print_MACRO
final print_Sao Paulo
final print_Birmingham
retouched_Sonny Fabbri 3/4/2015 © Steve McCurry | Magnum Photos
Peter van Agtmael Cup Foods, Minneapolis, Minnesota. USA. June 2, 2020.
“When I first arrived in Minneapolis, Cup Foods, where George Floyd was killed by police, was a place of silence and mourning. As the days co (...)
ntinued, the feeling shifted. It was still a space for people to reflect on the horrific death, but it also became a place where people made art, served free food, collected goods for the needy, and even partied after months of confinement. A young woman, Ranay Barton, told me, ‘I came out here because I was angry. The first thing that ran through my mind was to be mad at white people. When things like this happen, you tend to segregate yourself. But seeing all the support and solidarity calmed me down: all these people are different colors, from different places, coming together for a purpose. I feel like the world should be like that.’”
– Peter van Agtmael © Peter van Agtmael | Magnum Photos
Harry Gruyaert Fishing. English trawler from Fleetwood, Lancashire. North Atlantic. 1970.
“In the 70’s I was commissioned by The Daily Telegraph to do a job on a boat that was embarking for a fishing season, in (...)
the waters between England and Iceland. It was an older-style boat where fishermen still worked on the deck in all weather conditions to empty the nets and gut the fish before storing them in the hold. Going out at sea is not my thing, especially as we had terrible storms with very rough seas and you could be swept away by one of those gigantic waves that kept on rolling in. In spite of these terrible conditions, having to take pictures was a great help as it did not leave me much time to dwell on my fears. But the greatest comfort was the feeling of solidarity that prevailed on the boat. Though each individual had a specific job to do, you knew that if the going got tough you could count on the people around you. On a boat, it is a matter of life and death.”
– Harry Gruyaert © Harry Gruyaert | Magnum Photos
Thomas Dworzak Village near Lake Victoria, Kisumu area, Kenya. March 2018.
“A year before this image was taken, a US non-profit started giving out the universal basic income in several villages in the region ar (...)
ound Kisumu. One of the families that received this income bought cattle and bars for the windows of their unfinished house. For decades, if not centuries, charities and NGOs have been trying to figure out the right ways to help.”
– Thomas Dworzak © Thomas Dworzak | Magnum Photos
Nanna Heitmann My friend Andrei, a clown and puppeteer overlooks the city in the early morning hours. Moscow, Russia. April 3, 2020.
“The scene reminds me of the movie ‘Himmel über Berlin’ (‘Heaven over Berlin’ (...)
distributed in English as ‘Wings of Desire’) where invisible, immortal angels listen to the thoughts of the city’s human inhabitants and comfort the distressed. Peter Handke’s poem, ‘Song of Childhood’ written for the movie shows, for me, the power of children, who are able to see every human and every soul without judgement. I see in this a foundation for unity and solidarity. In the film's opening stages the poem is recited by the angel Damiel:
‘When the child was a child,
it didn’t know that it was a child,
everything was soulful,
and all souls were one.’”
– Nanna Heitmann © Nanna Heitmann | Magnum Photos
Alex Webb Erie, Pennsylvania, USA. 2010. From the book The Suffering of Light.
“I keep returning to these words of James Baldwin, which seem as apt today as
when he wrote them nearly sixty years ago: ‘Not (...)
everything that is faced can be
changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.’”
– Alex Webb
James Baldwin quote from the essay, “As Much Truth as One Can Bear,” The New
York Times Book Review, January 14, 1962 © Alex Webb | Magnum Photos
Olivia Arthur Otay Mountain, California. USA. 2019.
“Otay Mountain straddles the US-Mexico border just outside San Diego and Tijuana. Because the border wall ends on its slopes, the mountain eventually becomes (...)
the barrier itself. Migrants make the treacherous crossing into the United States using the bushes of the scrubland as cover as well as hiding in clusters of rocks. But the mountain is also a designated Wilderness Area with many protected species of wild flowers. I spent time documenting the plants and their flowers, but at the same time I would look at their branches and leaves and see them in another way, as the protective shields guiding the passage of the border-crossers.”
– Olivia Arthur © Olivia Arthur | Magnum Photos
Paolo Pellegrin Refugees on the coast. Mytilini, Lesbos, Greece. 2015.
“Newly arrived refugees pass time in Lesbos, Greece, as they wait for their registration process to be completed. Many of them endured weeks (...)
and months of waiting before they could continue their journey to the Greek mainland. During that difficult time, as thousands of refugees arrived on the tiny island, there were many examples of support and solidarity among the local population. Some residents opened their homes to new arrivals. Others volunteered to search for rafts adrift at sea, saving hundreds of people from drowning. At that time, the community's support was extraordinary.”
– Paolo Pellegrin © Paolo Pellegrin | Magnum Photos
Emin Özmen A woman waits for the bus. Senceredi village, near Astara, Azerbaijan. 2018.
“In 2018, I was assigned to go to southern Azerbaijan to meet with a community of Talysh people, an ethnic group indi (...)
genous to the area, whose people live either side of the Iran-Azerbaijan border. The group has suffered for years as a result of a long-term deprivation of cultural and educational rights, as well as from the effects of economic neglect upon their region.
Despite all difficulties and the hindrances, solidarity has helped them to keep their culture alive. It binds them together. It has given them the strength to pass their traditions and history on to future generations."
– Emin Özmen © Emin Özmen | Magnum Photos
Larry Towell Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. 1990.
“I began photographing Mennonite migrant workers as they arrived from Mexico to plant and harvest the fruit and vegetables of Ontario. It was the first summe (...)
r in Ontario for Nancy Klassen, who is wearing a traditional headscarf and standing on a tomato harvester with her cousins as it rounds the end of a cornfield. The other girls, who’d come from the same insular colony in Mexico, had lived in Canada for several years and understood the struggle of language and culture she would have to surmount. They spent the summer helping build her confidence in a new and modern world.”
– Larry Towell © Larry Towell | Magnum Photos
Philippe Halsman American political activist Angela Davis. Photographed by Philippe Halsman for the cover of her autobiography. USA. 1973.
“You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. (...)
And you have to do it all the time.”
– Angela Davis
Quote selected by the Estate of Philippe Halsman © Philippe Halsman | Magnum Photos
Patrick Zachmann Paris, France. 2005.
“Solidarity.
Reportage is for me a way to reach out to others and I need to be empathetic with the people I photograph. I can’t photograph people I don’t like. I feel in soli (...)
darity with the victims of all sorts of injustice: dictatorships, racism or anti-semitism, violence against women and children around the world — but I don’t see myself as an activist. I keep my work as an artist or photojournalist separated from the civic actions I can do here and there. It happens that I have at times confused the two, for example, on the 10th anniversary of the crackdown on the students in Tiananmen. I created a multimedia project and organised an event one evening in Paris to display ongoing solidarity with them. But in general, my work as a photographer is not dictated by the solidarity I can feel towards a movement, nor is it provoked by a highly broadcasted societal debate, but more by a necessity to understand, discover at my own pace and then share with the audience.”
– Patrick Zachmann © Patrick Zachmann | Magnum Photos
David Seymour | -scaled.jpg Pacifist meeting for the disarmament of nations. Outskirts of Paris. Saint-Cloud, France. August 9, 1936.
“Chim's photo of this pacifist rally for disarmament depicts a passionate commitment to th (...)
e high ideal of peace. The raised arms of men and women signaled their devotion, while the English and French posters told their story. The rally on August 9, 1936 in the western Paris suburb of Saint-Cloud was aligned with the larger left-wing anti-fascist movement called the ’Front Populaire’ or the Popular Front. Emboldened by its May 1936 victories in legislative elections, the Front Populare socialists would eventually install their leader Léon Blum as Prime Minister. The remarkable commitment of Front Populaire members was more intense than just attending a rally: it led many to join the fight against General Francisco Franco's dictatorship and alliance with Nazi Germany, which has become known as the Spanish Civil War. The tens of thousands of people who volunteered to fight a war in another country was an extraordinary sign of solidarity with the anti-fascist Republicans in Spain. Chim's capacity to capture human emotion, while compactly telling an inspirational story marked his work and inspired a generation of photographers who practiced ’concerned photography."’
– Ben Shneiderman (nephew of David ‘Chim’ Seymour) © David Seymour | Magnum Photos
Eve Arnold Training activists not to react to provocation. Civil strike, CORE group (Congress of Racial Equality). Petersburg, Virginia, USA. 1960.
“In Eve Arnold’s book, Flashback! The 50’s, she recalled th (...)
e following:
‘CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) was representative of group cooperation between blacks and whites. They had set up training facilities throughout the South to teach resistance techniques that would open doors that white bigotry had closed…
…It was tough training. The next day, still in the church, Priscilla Washington was given a practical lesson in what might happen to her when she sat down at a white lunch counter. Fellow blacks trained for the work [and] acted out the parts of whites. Priscilla was called “biggity [n-----]" and "black bastard" and remarks like “What you want anyway? Haven't we done enough for you?" were thrown at her, while her trainers pulled her hair and a man blew smoke in her face. She stood it stoically for two hours, trying to concentrate on the Bible she was reading.’
60 years on from this photo, the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and many others remind us there is much work still to be done.
The NAACP needs your support to campaign for vital policy reform.”
– Michael Arnold, Estate of Eve Arnold © Eve Arnold | Magnum Photos
Sim Chi Yin Bangka, Indonesia. 2014.
“Indonesian tin divers and miners on the island of Bangka — armed with their lunch and water to last the day — head out to sea to catch a boat that takes them about 3km of (...)
f the coast to do the dangerous work that supplies the world’s solder wires for electronics such as smartphones, tablet computers like iPads, and flat-screen TVs.
They earn €6.50 a day for their work: diving to shove large plastic suction tubes into the sea bed to dredge for tin — a dangerous and archaic method. I shot these pictures in 2016, and wondered: when we buy our electronics, might we spare a thought for the cheap labour that goes into making them? What do we do in solidarity with these workers?”
– Sim Chi Yin © Sim Chi Yin | Magnum Photos
Jim Goldberg Rising Star. Tampa, Florida. 2012.
“During Magnum’s Postcards From America project (2011-2017), I traveled throughout the US in an attempt to document the changing social climate of a country stru (...)
ggling to define itself. This image was taken at a political rally for Barack Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012. This young man is part of The Men of Vision Brotherhood Service Organization, which provides teenage boys with leadership training through activism and community service. I was drawn to this moment because it imagines a future where inequality and injustice will no longer be.”
– Jim Goldberg © Jim Goldberg | Magnum Photos
Jonas Bendiksen Sukhumi, Abkhazia. 2005.
“I took this in on a pier outside Sukhumi, the capital of the breakaway republic of Abkhazia on the Black Sea coast. There were a bunch of boys, playing and diving into t (...)
he warm waters below, and I hung out with them and took pictures. I was drawn to this scene where all of the boys, despite their apparent uniformity, appeared as solitary figures, each in his own world for a fleeting moment.”
– Jonas Bendiksen © Jonas Bendiksen | Magnum Photos
Jean Gaumy On the vessel Izazuri. Gulf of Gascogne, Spain. 1996.
“The school of tuna is spotted, then discreetly approached by the boat. Water jets are suddenly activated and whip the surface of the sea, sim (...)
ulating the vibrations that would be produced by thousands of small fish that are hunted by large tuna, the same little fishes that the fishermen offer at the end of their lines. The tuna are deceived and trapped. Predators, preyed upon…
Of all the fishing campaigns I accompanied, of all the methods I have seen, this is one of the most respectful and balanced. Here, the prey has a chance. Some will escape. The school will not be massacred. Here, we are far from the reign of “scorched sea”, far from the total and criminal predation of the ‘factory’ boats equipped for the most absolute industrial profitability.”
– Jean Gaumy © Jean Gaumy | Magnum Photos
Enri Canaj A small boat carrying refugees and migrants, which has reached the Greek coast safely, despite turbulent seas. Lesbos, Greece. October 2015.
“It is always the right time for our strength to be se (...)
en. No matter what happens, we should never forget solidarity, which lightly bears our sorrows and joys like a lifeboat, carrying us smoothly and safely towards the next port.”
– Enri Canaj © Enri Canaj | Magnum Photos
Moises Saman Ansar, an 18-year-old Rohingya refugee, inside the makeshift tent that he shares with other members of his family. Ansar fled Myanmar in late September when the Myanmar Army attacked his village. A (...)
nsar's disabled father was not able to escape and was burned to death inside his home. Balukhali Refugee Camp, Cox Bazar. Bangladesh. October 10, 2017.
“In a year in which unprecedented global challenges have inspired a newfound sense of community, I can only hope for a reborn sense of solidarity with the less fortunate around the world, whose lives were upended years before the arrival of COVID-19.”
– Moises Saman © Moises Saman | Magnum Photos
A. Abbas ‘The Confiscated Revolution’
Armed militants outside the United States Embassy, where diplomats are held hostage. Tehran, Iran. 1979.
"We won! But why did I not let my joy explode, as did all my (...)
companions that night? Was it because I saw the face of defeat?"
– Abbas, from the photographer’s notes © A. Abbas | Magnum Photos
Rafal Milach The First March of Gentlemen. Wrzesnia. Poland. 2017.
“The First March of Gentlemen is a fictitious narration composed of authentic stories. Historical events related to the town of Wrzesnia came (...)
to be the starting point for reflection on protest and disciplinary mechanisms. In the series of collages, the reality of 1950s Poland ruled by the communists blends with the memory of the Wrzesnia children strike from the beginning of the 20th century. The project includes archive photos of Wrzesnia by lifelong resident and photographer Ryszard Szczepaniak.
Making critical statements about violation of human rights and all sorts of discrimination is the citizen’s and artist’s duty. Taking a position can be manifested in various layers and scales, from activism to small daily life gestures. As an artist and citizen I try to contribute to the discourse with all the tools I have and try to make use of my visual skills to support protest culture.”
– Rafal Milach
The project includes archive photos by Wrzesnia photographer Ryszard Szczepaniak. © Rafal Milach | Magnum Photos
Alessandra Sanguinetti Enchanting the pig. Buenos Aires, Argentina. 1999.
“As a child, I remember closing my eyes shut tightly, and fervently wishing for things to happen or appear before me. Of course, disappointment w (...)
ould set in when I opened them.
I know better now. I wish willful ignorance, racism and injustice would disappear overnight, but it’s a long process and I’m still learning how to be a part of that change.”
– Alessandra Sanguinetti © Alessandra Sanguinetti | Magnum Photos
Philip Jones Griffiths Anti-Apartheid Protest. Trafalgar Square, London, England, Great Britain. 1960.
“Fighting racism is a generational battle and Philip was documenting the struggle 60 years ago. The Philip Jones Gri (...)
ffiths Foundation stands with BLM, the NAACP and all people pursuing equity of opportunity and equality in justice.”
– Estate of Philip Jones Griffiths © Philip Jones Griffiths | Magnum Photos
Bieke Depoorter From the project ‘I am about to call it a day’. USA. 2011
“Accidental encounters determined my sleeping places. Each day I tried to find someone new who was willing to host me that night. Mutual t (...)
rust was the building block for these intimate experiences. Every single time, I was surprised by the openness with which people received me and the insight into their lives they shared before I left again the next morning, all of us knowing that we would probably never see each other again. Sometimes I felt their loneliness or sadness, sometimes it felt raw and tough, but I also saw these beautiful moments of tenderness, love and dedication.
Thank you for sharing so selflessly.”
– Bieke Depoorter © Bieke Depoorter | Magnum Photos
Chris Steele-Perkins Roadworks and Mount Fuji. Near Kawaguchiko, Japan. 1999.
“Ask just about anyone what comes to mind when they think of Japan and they will reply — Fuji.
A Japanese person would say the more respec (...)
tful form of address — Fuji-san.
The night I made this image, I stopped at some road works and Fuji-san was visible. I made a 4-minute exposure and the flashing red lights combined with the green fluorescent light of Fujinomiya city reflecting from the clouds was almost hallucinogenic.
This photo is the cover image of the book I made on Fuji-san. I created it as a consequence of meeting my Japanese wife. You could say it was an act of respect for, and a testament to my connection with, the country that formed this remarkable woman.”
– Chris Steele-Perkins © Chris Steele-Perkins | Magnum Photos
Sohrab Hura Pati, India. 2010.
“I never quite understood what solidarity meant until I went to Pati for the first time in 2005. Pati is a small village block in Madhya Pradesh in central India. Coming from a (...)
bigger metropolitan city like New Delhi, I witnessed and experienced solidarity in a way that felt like a life changing experience - I guess that is what happens when you have the privilege of not really feeling the immediate need for it yourself and it only remains a sort of a grand gesture that you might extend on to others. It was here that for the first time I experienced a collectiveness unlike anything else. It was also here that I learnt that Solidarity could even exist in the act of stepping back and listening.”
– Sohrab Hura
In addition to the donation to the NAACP, Sohrab Hura’s proceeds from the sale of this print will be used to support ‘Jagrut Adivasi Dalit Sangathan (JADS)’, a grassroots union formed by people in Pati to fight for basic rights including their right to work in dignity. © Sohrab Hura | Magnum Photos
Hiroji Kubota The village of Ubud, surrounded by many beautiful valleys with terraced fields. Ubud, Bali. Indonesia. 1997.
“Indonesia is home to many active volcanoes and a few thousand islands. The island of (...)
Bali is perhaps the best known of these, particularly among foreign tourists, many of whom hang around on its beautiful beaches. While the vast majority of Indonesians are Muslim, the residents of Bali are predominantly Hindu. Some tourists go to watch religious rituals, though they are sometimes not welcome at them. I can usually get away with it, since I look like a Chinese-Indonesian. Hardly any tourists bother to visit Indonesia’s rice paddies.
I chose this image while thinking about the food shortages we are now facing worldwide due to the coronavirus.”
– Hiroji Kubota © Hiroji Kubota | Magnum Photos
Trent Parke Spider web on five blades of grass. South West Rocks. New South Wales. Australia. 2003.
“I have always been fascinated by time, symbols, life and death. From the smallest microscopic creatures, to (...)
the infinite space of the universe.
While walking through the vast Australian bush I am stopped in my tracks by this minute spiderweb, built on the foundations of just five blades of grass.
The delicate threads come together from different directions. Uniting to weave something strong and durable yet still so fragile.”
– Trent Parke © Trent Parke | Magnum Photos
Khalik Allah Sapphire. 125th Street and Lexington Avenue, Harlem, NYC. 2014.
“Representing the theme of solidarity: Sapphire was part of a close-knit homeless community which assembled on the corner day and ni (...)
ght — and because everyone in the clique was homeless, each did whatever they could to support the other.”
– Khalik Allah © Khalik Allah | Magnum Photos
Susan Meiselas Shared Dining. Women of York. 2015.
“This circle of hands came together to celebrate unity despite the isolating conditions of incarceration. Each woman, enduring separation from family and home, (...)
found moments to connect and care for another. Some have moved on since then; some still remain. For all of us, memory is shaped by the time shared.”
– Susan Meiselas, July 2020 © Susan Meiselas | Magnum Photos
Sabiha Çimen A plane flies low over students at a picnic during the weekend. Istanbul, Turkey. 29 August, 2018.
“Solidarity comes in many shapes, sizes, and forms: brother to brother, sister to sister, support (...)
ing each of our rights to be ourselves in all different shades of light. For me, this photograph of students of the Quran school for girls shows their solidarity as they hold hands against the wind. The best way of staying strong in a boarding school is through friendship."
– Sabiha Çimen © Sabiha Çimen | Magnum Photos
Gueorgui Pinkhassov Hotel garden in Akasaka, Tokyo, Japan. 1996.
“Freedom, equality, fraternity and solidarity — in the whirlwind of society, these values form mosaics in many of our relationships. But nature came up (...)
with two main tools in its construction of harmony: its own form of scissors and glue.
At some point while watching how my children grow up, I discovered the cutting of the umbilical cord. Emancipation means gaining independence: leaving home— freedom!
And what is the opposite of emancipation? It is love! I remember these voluntary shackles and my children’s births. Then their emancipation and leaving home.”
– Gueorgui Pinkhassov © Gueorgui Pinkhassov | Magnum Photos
Lindokuhle Sobekwa Farmworkers outside the supermarket with their boss's child. 2019.
“These farmworkers were waiting in a bakkie (a pick-up truck) outside one of the main supermarkets in Daleside, a rural town to t (...)
he south of Johannesburg. What was amazing to witness was the seemingly unconditional love that this young boy showed for the farm workers. I felt that this action from the baby came from a good place and couldn't help but wonder what might happen if the whole world could act in the same way as this child.
What kept resonating in my mind were Martin Luther King’s words: 'I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.' For us to achieve a non-racialized world we need to teach people to love each other, unconditionally.”
- Lindokuhle Sobekwa © Lindokuhle Sobekwa | Magnum Photos
Raghu Rai Building the highway. Hyderabad. India. 2005.
“I was making the journey on this newly built highway from Hyderabad to the rest of the Andhra Pradesh state, and finding the ride delightful, when su (...)
ddenly, I discovered several pairs of hands helping each other to clean up the side-roads. The road was long and endless and the hands which stretched in solidarity, almost reaching the horizon, were a powerful harmony of energies and forms at play. It didn’t take me more than a few frames to capture the spirit of it all.”
– Raghu Rai © Raghu Rai | Magnum Photos
Cristina Garcia Rodero Canvas in the wind. Baracoa, Cuba. 2010.
“Baracoa was the first city founded in Cuba. In 2011 it celebrated its 500th anniversary. It is located in the northeastern area of the province of Guantán (...)
amo, close to Haiti. Difficult to access, surrounded by mountains, rivers and the sea, with plenty of vegetation that makes it a place of extreme natural beauty, the city is a national monument; its inhabitants, located far away from Cuba’s tourism hubs, are entrepreneurs, friendly and welcoming. The city is located in an area that has been stricken by hurricanes. In 2008, Hurricane Ike penetrated up to 400m inland, destroying the city’s market and many houses on the shore. Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and Hurricane Matthew in 2016 — the most powerful, with winds of 220 km/h— devastated the city, =80%, leaving much of it in ruins. Then, again, in 2017, Hurricane Irma caused significant damage. It is a historic city, fragile and wounded by natural disasters.”
– Cristina Garcia Rodero © Cristina Garcia Rodero | Magnum Photos
Martin Parr Scotland, Great Britain. 2017.
“I was driving north near Huntly on the A96 in Scotland and suddenly this scene came into view.
I leapt out of the car and whipped out the camera and started shooti (...)
ng as I got nearer the mound.
Suddenly the black sheep looked up and in one frame the image was captured.
Sometimes things just work out.”
– Martin Parr © Martin Parr | Magnum Photos
Hannah Price Twin Day. Rochester, New York, USA. 2008. From the series Resemblance.
“I came up with the title of 'Resemblance' for my project on adolescence because I was envious that some students got to go t (...)
o school with others who looked like them - I had been the only black person in my grade, growing up. While making the work, one of the three schools I was photographing in had a 'spirit week' and this day in particular was Twin Day. The girls were best friends.”
– Hannah Price © Hannah Price | Magnum Photos
Micha Bar-Am End of the track. Basic training camp, Be’er Sheva, Israel. 1957.
“Even if, linguistically, ‘Solidarity’ reminds one of soldier-hood and comraderythis image of two exhausted troops evokes my me (...)
End of the track. Basic training camp, Be’er Sheva, Israel. 1957.
“Even if, linguistically, ‘Solidarity’ reminds one of soldier-hood and comradery...this image of two exhausted troops evokes my memory of limping behind them, almost too exhausted myself to take their picture.”
– Micha Bar-Am © Micha Bar-Am | Magnum Photos
Mark Power Shipyard. Gdansk. Poland. November 2004. “In 1980, while a student, I sold badges and other ephemera on the streets of Brighton in support of Solidarność (Solidarity), the Polish trade union founde (...)
d in the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk that same year. Government attempts to destroy the group through the imposition of martial law failed and, by the mid-80s, with membership having grown to some 10 million (one-third of the country's working-age population) it was finally recognised as a legitimate organisation by the State. Solidarność ultimately played a central role in the ending of communist rule in Poland and its leader, Lech Wałęsa, rose from a humble electrician to become his country’s first democratically elected President.
Almost a quarter of a century later, in 2004, I found myself in the newly named Stocznia Gdańska (Gdansk Shipyard). I was in the early stages of making The Sound of Two Songs, a five-year project following Poland’s accession to the European Union. I’d been so excited to visit, but the experience turned out to be a melancholy one; the shipyard was then working at just 20% capacity, unable to compete successfully in the free market with South Korea or China.”
– Mark Power © Mark Power | Magnum Photos