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News from the 2019 Magnum Photos Annual General Meeting

New nominees, associates and members join the agency at the collective's annual meeting in London

Matt Black El Paso, Texas, USA. 2015. © Matt Black | Magnum Photos

Magnum Photos’ AGM closed Sunday, 30 June. Held this year at London’s Barbican Centre, the meeting offers the only opportunity for Magnum’s photographers, estates and staff to come together and discuss agency business. One key aspect of any AGM is the voting on new members and photographer status changes. The 2019 meeting saw three photographers becoming full members, two nominees becoming associate members, and two new nominees welcomed to the collective.

The AGM took place  alongside a week of cultural programming, including the one-day The Medium is the Message symposium which saw Magnum photographers and guest speakers exploring four areas closely related to the contemporary agency: trust and authenticity; humanism; imaging, technology, and the digital environment; and authorship and creativity. Keynote speakers for the event were investigative journalist Job Rabkin and curator and cultural historian Mark Sealy.

As well as the symposium there was the Life Rewired program – a week-long series of free events including panel discussions, book signings, and editing workshops – held in the Barbican’s foyer.

During the AGM, the following motions regarding membership were passed:

Matt Black has become a full member.
Carolyn Drake has become a full member.
Newsha Tavakolian has become a full member.
Enri Canaj has become an associate member.
Cristina de Middel has become an associate member.
Newsha Tavakolian Torin Khairegi, 18, in Zinar base. Semalka Border, Rojava, Syria. 2015. © Newsha Tavakolian | Magnum Photos
Carolyn Drake The Internat Children's Home, a Soviet-era institute wedged between the forest and the new suburb of Petrykiv. Ternopil. Petrokhiv. Ukraine. 2016. © Carolyn Drake | Magnum Photos
Enri Canaj | _ Ahmed 6 years old from Afghanistan. While leaving illegaly the Balkans he and his family had a tragic accident in Serbia. He lost his grandmother and his mothers legs were amputated twice. From a y (...)
Cristina de Middel Lune, 56 years old. Married. Tailor. Lune was 16 years old when he first paid for prostitutes in his hometown. He went to the brothel by himself but following the advice of a friend who told him he (...)

The AGM also saw two new nominees welcomed to the agency:  Nanna Heitmann and Zied Ben Romdhane.

Magnum president Thomas Dworzak writes, “We are delighted to welcome our two new nominees, two very distinct voices. Nanna, born in 1994, is a German-Russian who has created intimate work on Siberian spirituality and disappearing industry in Germany. And Zied, born in 1981, in Tunisia has been relentlessly documenting both change and friction in his homeland. It’s inspiring for all of us to see the new talent being brought into – as well as that which has grown in – the collective.”

Zied Ben Romdhane. A cloud on the top of a hill near the phosphate field, Al-Mitlawi 5/31/2015. © Zied Ben Romdhane | Magnum Photos
Nanna Heitmann. A small ferry boat is the only connection to the village of Old Believers, Erzhey. The Old Believers turned against the reforms of the Patriarch Nikon, who reformed from 1652 texts (...)
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