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Azerbaijan will host COP-29 from November 11 to 22, 2024. But the small oil state is suffering greatly from the causes and effects of climate change, and faces significant trade-offs.

On assignment for the NYT, Nanna Heitmann documented the small country in July 2024. Together with journalist Max Bearak, she reported from remote mountain villages, an offshore oil platform and the capital, Baku.

"As alarm over global warming soars amid record-breaking heat and increasingly erratic weather, Azerbaijan has barely begun the process of replacing oil and gas. It has argued, as many less developed nations have, that rich nations must cough up billions of dollars to help them transition their economies, given that the world’s wealthier countries are responsible, in historical terms, for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions," wrote Max Bearak for the NYT.

Azerbaijan's Climate Change Dilemmas...

After the 2023 Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel, followed by Israeli retaliation in the Gaza Strip, the conflict quickly spread to the Lebanese border with Hezbollah.

On behalf of The Washington Post, Myriam Boulous traveled with journalist Kareem Fahim for a day on September 10, 2024 to document the Spanish contingent of UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, near the Blue Line.

"UNIFIL provides humanitarian aid, including to civilians under imminent threat of violence. At least twice during the current conflict, Albar said, civilians sheltered in UNIFIL facilities in the Spanish contingent's area," Kareem Fahim wrote for the Washington Post.

UNIFIL in South Lebanon

The military clashes between Israel and various Lebanon-based militant groups trace back to Israel's founding in 1948, after which Lebanon and its neighbors declared war. Following the PLO's establishment in Lebanon in 1968, Israel invaded twice—in 1978 (Operation Litani) and in 1982—occupying southern Lebanon. In response, Hezbollah was formed to resist the occupation.

Israel withdrew in 2000, but conflict reignited in a month-long war with Hezbollah in 2006, which left significant damage in Lebanon but strengthened Hezbollah's political position. Since then, border skirmishes have continued, escalating further since the outbreak of the Israeli-Palestinian war in October 2023. Magnum photographers have documented this enduring conflict for decades.

Israel & Lebanon from the Archives...

In the months since the onset of the Israel-Gaza War, Rafal Milach has captured the numerous protests in Warsaw, Poland, in memory of the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have died in the Gaza Strip and a demand for a permanent ceasefire.

Warsaw's Protests for Palestine...

On September 10th, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump faced off in the first and possibly only debate before the upcoming 2024 U.S. election. Cristina De Middel photographed Kamala Harris supporters at a debate watch party in Florida, as more than 67 million viewers tuned in worldwide.

2024 Presidential Debate Watch...

Enri Canaj

Four Magnum photographers have teamed up with two reporters from the Swiss newspaper Le Temps to document key issues in the United States ahead of the upcoming presidential elections in November 2024.

Alongside Simon Petite and Léo Tichelli, photographers Eli Reed, Larry Towell, Cristina de Middel and Peter van Agtmael explore themes of economy, democracy, abortion, foreign policy, and immigration in several key states.

For the first report in the series, Eli Reed traveled to Georgia in July 2024 with journalist Simon Petite to document ongoing challenges in the face of democracy. Over the course of several days, they met with election officials, African-American voters, and Republican candidates, bearing witness to the climate of heightened tension in the contested state.

Democracy in Atlanta

Between 2022 and 2024, Alec Soth visited twenty-five undergraduate art programmes across the United States. Advice for Young Artists comprises work he made there. Its title – perhaps like the visits themselves – is misleading: rather than wisdom or guidance, Soth offers an angular and unresolved reflection on artmaking at different stages of life and the relations of photography, time, and ageing. The photographs here range from formal studies evocative of the classroom to more unruly works of self-expression. Ambiguous stagings, found forms, and lyrical portraits are interspersed with gnomic quotes and unfinished credos scrawled on Post-its. Among the students, Soth himself appears at intervals, an uncertain sage in their midst.

Inspired by Walker Evans’s late Polaroids, this latest body of work reveals a new expansion of Soth’s practice and a new vantage, twenty years on from the publication of his first book. Recalling the conceit of Broken Manual, it uses an instructional format as a spurious cover for introspection and provocation. As much as a study of the experience of the young artist, this is a reckoning with the prospect of becoming an old one.

MACK, 2024
Embossed linen hardcover with tip-in.
26.6 x 27.3 cm, 72 pages
ISBN 978-1-915743-76-3

Advice for Young Artists

Born in Belgium in 1941, Harry Gruyaert was one of the first European photographers to take advantage of color (...). Heavily influenced by pop art, his dense compositions are known for weaving together texture, light, color, and architecture to create filmic, jewel-hued tableaux. As a result, they often seem closer to painting than to photography.

Although his wanderlust has taken him to many exotic locations, Gruyaert has frequently returned to his country of birth. (...) His lens captures the singularity of his nation, portraying everyday life in a way that unfolds like a hyperrealistic film set. As a counterpoint to these more recent color photographs, three portfolios of black-and-white images taken in the 1970s punctuate this visual immersion and journey through the lowlands.
(Publisher presentation)

22,5 x 22,5 cm
256 pages
165 color photographs
Text : Brice Matthieussent

Thames & Hudson
January 2025
ISBN : 9780500028995

Atelier EXB
September 2024

Homeland

The History War is a book of photographs, collages and ephemera which beings with a timeline tracing Ukraine’s evolution from the 5th century and its long struggle for independence. The book is divided into six narratives documenting the events and people Larry Towell encountered in his many journeys to Ukraine.

Towell first visited Ukraine at the time of the Maidan uprising in 2014, witnessing the final days of the violent clashes between the protestors and police in Kyiv. His photographs show the civilians behind makeshift barricades with home-made weapons, the heavily shielded police and the aftermath of the dead in a half-destroyed Maidan Square. It was this event which led to Towell’s long-term commitment to Ukraine and compelled him to return over the years.

The second chapter focuses on Towell’s time in the wastelands of Chernobyl, site of history’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986 which resulted in many Soviets losing faith in the system. The following chapters focus on Towell’s time on eastern Donbass—a region of neglected coal miners and de-occupied ruins, an embed with the Ukrainian Army in Bakhmut, time with separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk, and finally, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, including the exhumation of civilian graves and crimes against humanity in Bucha.

Described by Towell as ‘one person’s book on Ukraine’ The History War challenges the possibilities of a photobook and demonstrates how storytelling can be woven together by different fabrics. Taking on the format of a scrapbook, Towell combines personal notes with ephemera—postcards, found family pictures, playing cards, cigarette packets and rubbish left behind by Russian soldiers to supplement his images.

‘I believe this project is an important testament to a political crisis that will shape international relations and reverberate through the decades to come. It also challenges a world oversaturated with news pictures.’

GOST, 2024
199x250mm, Portrait,
192 pages, 123 images
Hardback, clothbound cover
978-1-915423-40-5

The History War

In June 2024, as part of his ongoing personal project to document Mexico City and its environs, Jérôme Sessini documented the cult of Santa Muerte, a folk divinity who impersonates death and is increasingly relied upon by Mexico's marginalized populations to support them in their struggles.

Historically, the country has celebrated the Day of the Dead in November with processions that last up to a week. Over the past two decades, a new phenomenon has emerged and grown in Tepito, one of Mexico City's most historic and central neighborhoods, also known as one of the most violent in the city due to the presence of drug cartels.

In lieu of traditional prayers for the dead, the people of Tepito have created a unique representation of the Deity of Death, a skeleton typically dressed in a robe and imbued with extraordinary powers to heal and protect the faithful. In Sessini already documented the growing phenomenon in 2018.

Mexico City's Santa Muerte Death...

Issa Amro, who has endured arrest and assault for his courageous acts of defiance, remains dedicated to nonviolent resistance in the West Bank, even as violence becomes increasingly unavoidable.

On assignment for the New York Times, Paolo Pellegrin documents Amro’s daily path of defiance, one lined with olive trees and metal detectors. A UN-recognized human rights defender and co-founder of the grassroots organization Youth Against Settlements, Amro's commitment to this challenging route is paved with difficulties by the Israeli military’s near-total ban on protests, including restrictions on gatherings of more than ten people and the display of the Palestinian flag.

Amro’s ongoing presence in Tel Rumeida is itself an act of defiance, as many Palestinians in the Israeli-controlled area have been compelled to leave the city.

Issa Amro: Non-Violent Resistance...

Delegates from around the US assembled at the four-day Democratic National Convention for the purpose of formally nominating Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz as the party’s candidates for President and Vice President in the 2024 general election. Held in Chicago this year, dozens of speakers addressed the convention, including some of the Democratic Party’s most notable figures, such as President Joe Biden and former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
In addition to displaying support for Harris and Walz as a means of winning over more voters to the Democratic slate, the first day of the event served as an opportunity to express the party’s appreciation of Joe Biden’s long political career - including his decision to drop his candidacy for re-election - and to symbolically hand over the reins of leadership to Kamala Harris.
Outside the convention venue, crowds gathered to protest against the war in Gaza - a key issue for many Democrat voters.
Multiple Magnum photographers traveled to Chicago and documented events during the convention.

2024 Democratic National Convention...

Moises Saman traveled to Sudan for The New York Times and documented the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement’s stronghold in the Nuba Mountains. The country has been embroiled in a civil war for over a year, driven by ethnic, religious, and resource conflicts, resulting in as many as 150,000 deaths and the displacement of 11 million civilians according to the NYT. The S.P.L.M., with its secular vision, encourages residents to identify as “Nuba” rather than by religion.

Despite efforts by the group and foreign NGOs to provide education and healthcare, the threat of famine remains.

Sudan: The War the World Forgot...

During the June 3, 2019 sit-in at the General Command of the Sudanese Armed Forces, I had great hope for the revolution. For the first time, I was in intimate proximity to my Sudan. People at the sit-in were from different cultural, class, and political backgrounds, united in their goal. I was overcome with emotions. As I wandered the square, I could smell the scent of freedom. After the sit-in at the General Command was dispersed on June 3, 2019, the armed forces of the Sudanese Transitional Military Council, headed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the immediate successor organization to the Janjaweed militia, used heavy gunfire and teargas to disperse a sit-in by protestors in Khartoum, killing more than 100 people, at least forty of the bodies had been thrown in the River Nile. And the RSF raped more than 70 women and men. The Internet was almost completely blocked in Sudan in the days following the massacre, making it difficult to estimate the number of victims. The Sudanese political parties represented by the Sudanese Professionals Association and Forces of Freedom and Change agreed to negotiate with the apparatus responsible for the bloodshed and killings of the protestors. They did so despite fierce opposition from the people in the streets, who categorically refused negotiation with the killers. The political parties proceeded with the negotiation, ignoring the calls of the street under the pretext of preventing bloodshed. Two and a half years of transitional civilian government ended on November 25, 2021, with the coup led by General AI-Burhan. As I watched the weak military statement announcing the coup on the Sudanese national channel when I was in Cairo, I became emotional again. This time, my emotions were negative, and all hope was lost. The Khartoum Airport was closed for seven consecutive days, and my flight home was canceled. My birthday is on January 1, 1995. It is the date listed on my birth certificate, but I do not know my real date of birth. I was granted an estimated birthdate of January 1st by the state due to a lack of infrastructure to build a modern digital archive system. I have been born during a hard political time in Sudan's history, in the second Sudanese civil war from 1983 to 2005 between the central Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army. It was largely a continuation of the first Sudanese civil war of 1955 to 1972.

As of the Summer of 2024, this was an ongoing project.

(Salih Basheer, 2024)

Blue: Children of January

Lindokuhle Sobekwa began this project after finding a family portrait of his sister Ziyanda's face cut out. Ziyanda was secretive and rebellious, and disappeared after an accident that left Sobekwa injured as a child. Employing a scrapbook aesthetic with handwritten notes, I carry Her photo with Me engages both with Sobekwa's memories of his sister and the wider implications of such disappearances within South African history. This book expands his work on fragmentation, poverty, and the long-reaching ramifications of apartheid and colonialism across all levels of South African society.

MACK
Spiral-bound hardcover
18 x 22cm, 80 pages
ISBN 978-1-915743-312
April 2024

I carry Her photo with Me

Bruce Gilden offers a peek inside the tightly secured venue of the Republican National Convention. Donald Trump, making his first public appearance since surviving an assassination attempt on July 13th, was nominated for his third consecutive presidential election, with Senator JD Vance of Ohio confirmed as his vice-presidential running mate.

The 2024 Republican National Convention...

"Since 2015, when I started the project, I've met migrants at various stages of their journey, traveled with them on the train they call the Beast, interviewed hitmen (sicarios) and smugglers (coyotes). I also researched landscapes and iconography to present the setting of this adventure, Mexico, as the fascinating, immense and extreme country that it is."

Cristina De Middel presents the migratory route through Mexico as a heroic journey: without denying the violence and dangers faced by migrants, she constructs a sublime epic overturning stereotypes. Combining her staged images tinged with magical realism with archival photos and objects found in the desert, she questions the ambiguous relationship between photography and truth.
The interview with Jacques-André Istel, the astonishing mayor of Felicity, a place close to the border self-proclaimed by its founder as the center of the world, and the wonderful text by Mexican journalist Pedro Anza, "Finding the center", echo Cristina De Middel's images.

June 2024
ISBN : 978–2–38629–011–4
20 x 30 cm
Bounded
176 pages

Journey to the Center

On Saturday, October 7th, Israel was taken by surprise in an unexpected and severe cross-border assault by Hamas from Gaza, resulting in the initial deaths of 900 people. The BBC reported that included in this number were 260 individuals attending a music festival. With many still missing or abducted by Hamas in Israel, families are left desperately seeking information as the conflict unfolds.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared war on Hamas, vowing to use “enormous force” by launching strikes in Gaza and imposing a “complete siege” on the Gaza Strip, freezing the flow of essential supplies. According to the BBC, as of October 9th approximately 690 people in Gaza had lost their lives and more than 120,000 had been displaced from their homes.

The result of this has triggered the latest outbreak of fighting in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, drawing in outside powers and echoing across the broader Arab region.

Israel and Palestine from the Archives...

Ukrainian President Vicktor Yanukovych’s cabinet abandoned an agreement on closer trade ties in the EU, favoring closer cooperation with Russia. What began as small protests escalated to the Revolution of Dignity, also known as the Maidan Revolution, a violent protest with at least 88 deaths. Following the Euromaidan protests and removal of Yanukovych, partnered with pro-Russia unrest in Ukraine, Russian annexed the Ukrainian territory of Crimea.

Demonstrations in the Donbas area of Ukraine escalated into a war between the Ukrainian Government and Russian-backed separatist forces. Russian military vehicles crossed the border in several locations of Donetsk Oblast, which is believed to be responsible for the defeat of Ukrainian forces in early September of 2014. In November, Ukrainian military reported intensive movement of Russian combat troops into separatist-controlled parts of eastern Ukraine.

In October 2021, Russia reignited concerns of a potential invasion after moving troops and military equipment to the shared border with Ukraine. The buildup continued until Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February, 2022.

Russo-Ukrainian Conflict

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