The Magnum Digest: June 19, 2020

Bruce Gilden documents Trump rally for Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair recently followed Donald Trump around the USA reporting on the rituals of the president’s supporters who have attended his rallies in the run-up to the 2020 Presidential Election. Bruce Gilden was present at one of these, in Charlotte, North Carolina, documenting what he witnessed there. Vanity Fair’s piece, examining the quasi-religious reverence displayed by members of the “cult of Trump”, is accompanied by Gilden’s images in the print edition of the magazine, and online here.

Eli Reed photographs George Floyd’s funeral

New York magazine’s The Cut recently sent Eli Reed on assignment to Houston, Texas to photograph the funeral of George Floyd. His images featured this week in an article by curator Chaedria Labouvier, who reflects on the iconography of Floyd, “the person who unsuspectingly became a symbol” of recent movements for justice in the US, as well as the poignancy of his absence from the photographs. See the images and read the article here.

How Magnum Photos adapted to the pandemic, on P3

A recent article on P3, the website run by the Portuguese newspaper Público, profiled Magnum Photos by focusing on the work of some of its photographers, and sharing insight from the agency’s CEO Caitlin Hughes. The piece examined the changing nature of photography exemplified by the work of the collective during the coronavirus pandemic, observing a shift from more immediate and traditional forms of photojournalism to more reflective working styles exploring the altered nature of everyday reality. Interviews with Bieke Depoorter, Thomas Dworzak, Alec Soth and Mark Power, explore the impact of coronavirus on the photographers’ working practice, while Hughes explains the measures taken by the business to retain its relevancy in the current climate. Read the piece in Portuguese here.

See more work and updates from the photographers made during the coronavirus crisis via the Diary of a Pandemic and Quarantine Conversations here, as well as on Magnum Flow.

Thomas Dworzak on police reform in Georgia, for BJP

Former director of Magnum Photos and now executive director of Aperture Foundation, Chris Boot, interviewed Thomas Dworzak for the British Journal of Photography about the dramatic overhaul of policing in Georgia in the 2000s, led by its president, Mikheil Saakashvili. Dworzak speaks about his experiences living in the Eurasian country, the Rose Revolution led by Saakashvili, and the policies he introduced to combat state corruption. “You don’t fire the entire police, especially in a place as criminal as Georgia,” Dworzak says, “But overnight, the police were gone, and as everyone keeps saying, suddenly there was no more crime. It was this incredible moment.” See Dworzak’s images of the revolution and from his 2008-2009 coverage of the new police force, along with the interview here.

Richard Kalvar listed as one of the five artists on Instagram to follow

In a New York Times piece titled, Five Artists to Follow on Instagram Now, Magnum photographer Richard Kalvar is listed alongside sculptor Simone Leigh, photographers Michaiah Carter and Rachel Stern, and contemproary artist Sara Cwynar.

You can read the feature here, and of course follow Kalvar on Instagram, here.

Sohrab Hura’s film, The Coast, on Fact Magazine

A section of Sohrab Hura‘s film The Coast, soundtracked by Helena Hauff and Athens producer Morah, has been written about on UK music title Fact Magazine’s site. The film, a continuation of Hura’s photo and book project of the same name, uses India’s coastline to examine the nation’s growing feeling of sexual, political and caste violence, merging his own photographs and footage with at times brutal found footage.

You can see the segment of the film in question here, on Fact, and you can read more about The Coast here, on Magnum.