Magnum Book Club: Generation Z

What would you write in a letter to your future self? Magnum’s latest collective publication, Magnum Chronicles: Gen Z, presents a global portrait of the rising generation in their own words.

75 years ago, Magnum co-founder Robert Capa conceived of the collective’s most ambitious group project at the time, and a large-scale feat in collective storytelling: Generation X.

Traveling to 14 countries around the world, Magnum’s earliest photographers set out to portray the daily lives, hopes and fears of the post-war generation. With a questionnaire for their interviewees in hand, they discovered the generation’s commonalities across vastly different social contexts.

Today, for the second edition of the annual, reader-supported Magnum Chronicles publication, the cooperative has embarked on a modern-day equivalent — a global portrait of Generation Z.

Collaborating with youth aged 14-29 around the world, 10 Magnum photographers have documented the coming-of-age generation. Alongside the original archived images from Generation X, this present-day inquiry forms a dialogue with one of Magnum’s first group endeavors, preserving the pursuit of in-depth, independent, and collective storytelling.

Described as “digital natives,” Gen Z youth have been exposed to global crises and war online like never before, inheriting the rise of AI, algorithm-driven choices, climate change, and more. Yet Magnum Chronicles: GenZ seeks to counter stereotypes and let the generation speak for itself. Inspired by the questionnaire from the 1950s, the photographers made one new request for each interviewee — a letter to their future self.

In her native Lebanon, Myriam Boulos photographed young women and men who mourn a sense of normalcy they feel they’ve been denied. As part of Zied Ben Romdhane’s project The Escape, he photographs youth in his home country of Tunisia, navigating a “feeling of malaise” about the future, politics, and identity.

Emin Özmen, Salih Basheer, and Newsha Tavakolian address widespread forced migration, photographing first and second-generation refugees and asylum seekers. Cristina De Middel captures the quiet restlessness of a young woman in rural Brazil, while Chien Chi-Chang interviews online gamers and intellectuals in Taipei.

Alec Soth’s images of US high school students and Sakir Khader’s portrait of youth in Syria and Palestine both incorporate hand-written responses and drawings, offering a textured intimacy to the collaboration.

In his introduction to the edition, Antoine D’Agata reiterates that “Magnum was founded by people who had chosen a side: against fascism, against colonial wars, against the erasure of humanity.”

In Tbilisi, Georgia, he captures young people who challenge mainstream narratives, alongside images of pro-Palestine activists in the US. “What worries me,” one interviewee states, “is the fact that people in the world have become so blinded by the desire for power that they can no longer see what truly matters.”

Giulietta Palumbo, Global Head of Editorial at Magnum and the driving force behind Magnum Chronicles, explains that the project feels just as urgent as it had for Capa in the 1950s. “We felt that it is essential at this point in time, when common trust and creative thinking are stifled by ongoing forms of violence, to open up a new dialogue about the future,” she says.

For many Gen Z youth, their letters to their future selves reveal a hopeful projection. “Don’t lose your passion, don’t let challenges extinguish your dreams,” writes Omar, an asylum seeker from Sudan, “And, the most important thing, always be proud of yourself.”

Support the publication and order Magnum Chronicles: GenZ  here.