Born in Norway, Jonas Bendiksen began his career at the age of 19 as an intern at Magnum’s London office, before leaving for Russia to pursue his own work as a photojournalist. Throughout the several years he spent there, Bendiksen photographed stories from the fringes of the former Soviet Union, culminating in his first published book, Satellites.
Bendiksen has since made major bodies of work all over the world. He has worked on critically acclaimed long-form projects including The Places We Live, a project on the growth of urban slums across the world, and The Last Testament, which tells the stories of seven individuals who claim to be the embodiment of the Second Coming of Christ. Bendiksen became a member of Magnum Photos in 2008. One such claimant is former MI5 officer David Shayler, who proclaimed divinity years after gaining global attention for whistle-blowing on the corruption of the British secret services. Pictured here, Shayler watches an eclipse from the peak of Roseberry Topping in Yorkshire, the same mountain from which he delivered his own Sermon on the Mount.