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The 2020 US Presidential Election is being billed as the most important in the nation's history. It comes during a time of substantial distress and division generated by Donald Trump's rhetoric, his administration's policies, the renewed momentum of the Black Lives Matter social movement, the Covid-19 crisis, and resulting economic downturn.
Magnum Photos looks back at the candidates and major US issues during the Trump presidency.

2020 US Presidential Election

In 1990, Carl de Keyzer traveled around in a camper photographing religious groups throughout the American South. He wanted to document America to show what an essential role religion plays in the culture of the country. As a Belgium photographer, Carl was able to see things from a different perspective that resulted in an incredible body of work, <i>God, Inc.</i> <a href="Package/2TYRYD1K11QQ" target="_blank">Click To See</a>
In 2019 and in 2020, during the current political climate, Carl went back to continue the project. He photographed few of the same places, events, ceremonies, of 1990 but he found mostly new places and subjects, which add perspective to the contemporary conversations about religion, politics, nationalism.
Carl witnessed <i>"It is a very critical project about religion as a whole, not just in the US. Only in the US religion is relatively new and full of creativity in finding new forms of nonsense. I see the US as a country that is very much under the influence of people who do and say things according to their beliefs." In an excerpt from Beautiful Country Burn Again, Ben Fountain writes: “In the arsenal of the phony, the politics of God is one of the deadliest punches to the sweet spot of the American mind. Citizens capable of the most astute analysis in other areas of their lives - in personal finance, say, or consumer technology, or the infinitely complex variables of fantasy sports leagues - are reduced to blithering dupes when exposed to the Christian pitch. Trot out a few verses of scripture, a little Jesus lip service, and something spooky happens to the excellent American mind that gave us moon landings and the silicon chip. No matter if the candidate has had three or four wives, fired thousands of workers, or dropped biblical plagues of bombs on rice farmers and sheepherders, merely saying the magic words makes it so. Christian values. Strong for Jesus. In God we trust, and all the rest. Incantations that render large chunks of the electorate as dazed and pliable as pre-contact tribesmen hearing a radio for the first time.” </i>

<b>God, Inc. II.</b> will be out as a book on October 2020 at Lanoo publisher, accompanied by a text by Johan Braeckman, Belgian's most known philosopher and notorious atheist. God, Inc. I is also included with a new edit from the work of 1990.
A special exhibition in Gent, Belgium, is planned for November 2020 as well.

God, Inc. II

(From July, 2016)

This past Spring, Lorenzo Meloni traveled to the South Caucasus to report on a flare-up in the long and lingering conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh. Though internationally recognized as being part of Azerbaijan, the mostly-Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh Republic has been functioning as an independent state since 1991. Despite a ceasefire in 1994 and many years of negotiation between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the official status and ownership of the region is still undecided.

<a href="http://pro.magnumphotos.com/Folder/2K1HRGPD7T0U" target="_blank">Click here/a> to access the entire story edit. </a>

Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict

Sohrab Hura

American singer Janis Joplin died from a heroin overdose on October 4th, 1970.

50 Years Since the Death of Janis...

On the 25th of September, more than 5 years after the tragical Charlie Hebdo shooting, another attack happened outside the former Charlie Hebdo office.
A little before noon, a man attacked four people with a butcher knife, leaving 2 of them severely injured. The attack happened in the street as they were taking a break in front of their offices. The company they work for, Première ligne which is a TV production company, had taken over Charlie Hebdo’s premises after the 2015 shooting.
The two attacks haven’t been officially linked, but this happened as Charlie Hebdo’s trial for the 2015 attack just started and new threats had been made. Indeed, the Islamic state recently openly threatened the journal as it republished right before the trial, Mahomet’s cartoon which had made them a target.

Magnum photographer Patrick Zachmann got to the scene right after the attack and provided us with some insights on the police investigation’s process.

Knife Attack Near Charlie Hebdo's...

In Let the Sun Beheaded Be, photographer Gregory Halpern focuses on the French Caribbean archipelago of Guadeloupe, a French overseas region with a complicated and violent colonial history.

Renowned for his photographic meditations on place, Halpern presents a compelling portrait of Guadeloupe and its inhabits, focusing on local histories and experiences. Let the Sun Beheaded Be commingles life and death, nature and culture, and beauty and decay in enigmatic color images of the archipelago’s residents and lush landscape, as well as monuments related to the brutality of its past.

The project is part of Immersion, a program of the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, in partnership with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Copublished by Aperture and Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, 2020

Let the Sun Beheaded Be

A half-century of social change in America, documented in the writings of Danny Lyon, photographer and author of The Bikeriders and The Destruction of Lower Manhattan

“From the beginning, even before he left the University of Chicago and headed south to take up a position as the first staff photographer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Danny Lyon dreamed of being an artist in language as well as in pictures,” writes Randy Kennedy in the introduction to American Blood. In 1961, at the age of 19, for example, Lyons penned a brutally satirical article for a student mimeo magazine in which he argued for the deterrent power of prime-time televised executions (“the show would open, no doubt, like a baseball game, with a rendition of the National Anthem”).

Lyon is widely celebrated for his groundbreaking work in photography and film. Less recognized is the extensive body of writing that has broadened and reinforced his reach, in both the pages of his own publications and in others as varied as the Los Angeles Times, the New York Review of Books, Aperture, civil rights publications, underground magazines and Lyon's blog.

This 400-page volume spans republished and previously unpublished texts from nearly six decades of his career, comprising a vast, meticulously archived history of American social change. Also included are conversations between Lyon and Hugh Edwards, Nan Goldin and Susan Meiselas. As Kennedy writes, Lyon’s collected writings, “remarkable as both artistic and moral models, remain far too little known, especially for an author who has seen what he has seen and possesses the rare ability to write about it as he speaks; Lyon is a world-class talker, funny, wise, sanguine and indefatigable.”

Karma Books, 2020

American Blood

French actress and popular chanson singer Juliette Gréco has died at the age of 91.
A symbol of the 1950s in Saint-Germain-des-Près and of the Bohemian lifestyle, she had been the Muse of many, including Jean-Paul Sartre, Boris Vian, Jean Cocteau and Miles Davis.

Juliette Greco: 1927- 2020

On September 8th and 9th, fires ravaged the Moria refugee camp on Lesbos, the largest of its kind in Europe, and left 13,000 migrants and refugees without any shelter.
Police blocked access to the nearby towns including the port town of Mytilene, where many refugees were headed. While some have managed to get into a new temporary camp, many refugees, including thousands of children, are still sleeping on railroads and gas stations' parking lots.
As local residents reject plans to reconstruct the camp, refugees and migrants are also becoming more concerned about future plans for their movement or lack thereof. A demonstration for proper accommodations lead to a clash with police.
Magnum photographer Enri Canaj, who has been documenting the situation in the notoriously overcrowded and unsanitary camp since July 2020, witnessed the chaotic situation in Lesbos.

Fire in Greece's Moria Refugee...

On the 3rd of August 2020, the dismantling of the famous organ of Notre Dame de Paris which had miraculously survived the fire in April 2019 started.
Even though the instrument escaped direct damage from the fire, it has been heavily affected by the dust from the spire which burnt down and suffered serious heat damage from the fire and from last summer’s heatwave.
The organ which was built in 1733 is made of 8000 pipes, 115 stops and a console with 5 keyboards. Due to the unusual working conditions, three different companies have been charged with the operation. While the console has been successfully taken out on Monday August 31st, workers are now disassembling the 8000 pipes.
The operation which is expected to last 5 months will be followed by a full renovation before being reassembled in the cathedral. The intent is to have it play the Te Deum on the 16th of April 2024, 5 years after the fire, as wished by President Macron.

Magnum photographer Patrick Zachmann has been documenting the work site, providing some insight into the complex operation.

Dismantling Notre-Dame's Organ

During confinement, Magnum photographer Antoine D’Agata wandered in a deserted Paris, documenting how the pandemic affected different spaces. On assignment for Vanity Fair France, D’Agata visited the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, discovering an emptied museum or rather a museum that had been turned around.
Paintings covered with craft paper, sculptures covered with white sheets such as corpses, work of arts turned around, Antoine D’Agata provided us some insight.

Musée des Arts Décoratifs During...

The Golden Triangle, the geographic location where Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar meet, is home to a billion-dollar drug industry. This "black zone", shut off to foreigners, is the source of narcotics that could be found in cities around the world.
The Kings Romans resort, in the heart of the Golden Triangle, is carved out of a special economic zone (SEZ) where its lavish casino and venues host heavy gambling, drug trade and human trafficking.
“Yaba” or crazy pills is a meth-and-caffeine tablet originally produced to stimulate pack horses on dense terrain. With a high that lasts for days, it causes rotted teeth and skin and users are described as wild-eyed zombies. With increasing numbers of casinos in SEZs, Yaba has caused a rising meth epidemic. “We are talking about guys in Myanmar bigger than El Chapo” says Jeremy Douglas from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

The Golden Triangle

In the Spring of 2020, when New York City was an epicenter of Covid-19 cases, all local services related to medicine and death became overwhelmed. While great attention was given to health professionals who were fighting to treat the infected, funeral homes quietly struggled with maintaining operating as they were tasked with preparing and burying the influx of those who had succumbed to the virus. The city saw it's highest number of fatalities during the first half of April, when 600 to 800 New Yorkers were dying each day. On April 6th, Patrick Kearns, the co-owner of the Leo F. Kearns Funeral Homes, told Vanity Fair that he had 40 bodies in his care whereas he typically only has two or three on an average day.

In May, Peter van Agtmael photographed one of Leo F. Kearns' locations in hard-hit Queens, for Vanity Fair.

Funeral Home in the Covid-19 Epicenter...

This project is dedicated to winners of various state and local competitions held between 2010-2013 and supported by the Belarusian authorities.
The list of the winners also includes the best of the best in contests promoting beauty or public space maintenance. The best hunter of the Ivacevichi region, the most beautiful staircase of Minsk, the best public canteen of the Republic of Belarus, the Best Nurse of Minsk to the best couple in love. Winners are present in kolkhozes, schools, public institutions, nightclubs, village discos and on Boards of Honour in almost each Belarusian town.

Between 2010 and 2013, Rafal photographed winners and places of various competitions promoted by the Belarusian authorities. This project shows poker-faced and sometimes lowered-headed winners of the country during that time. Allowing us to see a form of sociological vulnerability.

Format: Hardcover.
Size: 16.5 x 22.2cm.
Pages: 112.Design : Rafal Milach & Ania Nalecka
Publisher: GOST 2014

The Winners

July 16, 2020
(From Magnum President, Olivia Arthur)

It is with immense sadness that we announce the passing of our great colleague and friend Paul Fusco. Paul has been a member of the Magnum community since 1973 and will be remembered by his colleagues for his incredible kindness, and the deep sensitivity and humanity that he brought to his photography.
Empathizing with his subjects, and photographing them with much respect, Paul covered stories ranging from police brutality in New York to the long-term effects of the Chernobyl disaster and people living with AIDS in California. In 1968 he photographed the spectators lined along the route of Bobby Kennedy's funeral train from New York to Washington, capturing the emotion of the nation and becoming one of the most celebrated series of photographs of the time.
Magnum Photographers from across the generations remember him for the inspiration his work gave them as well as his generosity within the community. His presence will be missed and his legacy will be remembered.

"Dear Paul, For our generation, you were truly the artist who defined the humanistic view and for me, really exemplified the creative spirit of Magnum. I will always remember your kindness and gentle spirit."
(Bruce Davidson)

"There are few words to describe Paul: kind beyond kind, humane beyond what humane can be."
(Gilles Peress)

"The depth and commitment of his work has always been an inspiration, and of course Funeral Train remains one of the most remarkable works on the United States ever made."
(Peter van Agtmael)

"Paul is and will always be in my heart and mind the kind of human being that I think of as the best of what a human can be. A wonderful caring human being who happens to be a photographer. He is the best of us who speak with our respective approaches of capturing the world that we live in for a while."
(Eli Reed)

Fusco worked as a photographer with the United States Army Signal Corps in Korea from 1951 to 1953, before studying photojournalism at Ohio University, where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1957. He moved to New York City and started his career as a staff photographer with Look, where he remained until 1971.

In this role he produced important reportages on social issues in the US, including the plight of destitute miners in Kentucky; Latino ghetto life in New York City; cultural experimentation in California; African-American life in the Mississippi delta; religious proselytizing in the South; and migrant laborers. He also worked in England, Israel, Egypt, Japan, Southeast Asia, Brazil, Chile and Mexico, and made an extended study of the Iron Curtain countries, from northern Finland to Iran.

After Look closed down, Fusco approached Magnum Photos, becoming an associate in 1973 and a full member the following year. His photography has been published widely in major US magazines including Time, Life, Newsweek, the New York Times Magazine, Mother Jones and Psychology Today, as well as in other publications worldwide.

Fusco moved to Mill Valley, California, on July 4th, 1970 to photograph the lives of the oppressed and of those with alternative lifestyles. Among his latest subjects are people living with AIDS in California, homelessness and the welfare system in New York, and the Zapatista uprising in the Mexican state of Chiapas. He has also worked on a long-term project documenting Belarussian children and adults sickened by radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl explosion.

Paul Fusco: 1930 - 2020

On July 10th, a top Turkish court struck down the 1934 cabinet decree that turned Istanbul's Hagia Sophia into a museum. Later that day, Turkish president Erdogan signed a decree allowing the landmark to be used as a mosque.
Built 1,500 years ago as a Christian cathedral, Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest in 1453. 86 years ago, under the Turkish Republic, it became a museum and is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Emin Ozmen visited the site on the day of the announcement and then returned on July 24th to photograph worshipers during the first day of the change.

Turkey Declares Hagia Sophia a...

The Crimson Line is a return to “the simple black box and the single click”; it is a meditation on the adverse effects of industry and climate change through an exploration of the colors found in the sky during the first minutes of sunrise. Shot in the industrial landscape surrounding the beachside suburb in Adelaide that is Trent Parke’s home, his camera is often trained on the plumes of steam emanating from factory chimneys. Bathed in the intense reds and pinks of the early sun, they appear ominous and alien.

The Crimson Line

US cities have been bursting with outrage in response to the latest death of a black man from police brutality.
On May 25th, George Floyd died in police custody after an arresting Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck for 8 minutes. The incident was recorded on video which was soon posted online. Initial protests were peaceful but on May 27th, demonstrators lit a Minneapolis police precinct on fire. Since then, peaceful demonstrations have been staged in hundreds of cities around of the world.
This latest surge of activity in the Black Lives Matter movement, is the most widespread to date.

Black Lives Matter

Magnum photographers have been actively documenting the Covid-19 pandemic, some from the isolation of their homes. This album contains a frequently-updated selection of available images.

Coronavirus Coverage by Magnum...

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