Nanna Heitmann

Nanna Heitmann was born in Ulm, Germany, in 1994. She is based in Moscow and covers current events such as the invasion of Ukraine, while pursuing long-term projects that often focus on the way people respond to, and interact, with their environment.

Heitmann has documented the effects of climate change, including catastrophic forest fires and melting permafrost in Siberia (As Frozen Lands Burn), as well as the peatlands complex of the Congo Basin, which serves as the world’s largest carbon reservoir (Beneath The Trees). She has been published by National Geographic, Time, and M Le Magazine du Monde, among others, and contributes to the New York Times and New Yorker. Her visual journalism has been recognized with numerous prizes, including the Olivier Rebbot Award for her work on Russia’s Covid experience and a World Press Photo Award for her story on forest fires.

Heitmann became a Magnum Photos nominee in 2019, an associate member two years later, and a full member in 2023. She joined the agency on the strength of two bodies of personal work that both deal with issues of isolation — physical, social, and spiritual. Weg vom Fenster (Gone From the Window) focused on the inhabitants of Germany’s last operating coal mine. Hiding From Baba Yaga, a project whose title is inspired by the witch of Slavic folklore, involved Heitmann following one of the world’s longest rivers from the Republic of Tuva northward through Siberia, photographing the lives of people living on the remote banks of the Yenisei River. Her gaze conveys the dignity and humanity of these people and allows the viewer to look at them with curiosity and empathy.