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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.

Where is Issa Amro?

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...

French cinema icon Alain Delon died on Sunday 18 August at the age of 88. Renowned for his performances in such masterpieces as ‘The Leopard’ and ‘Rocco and His Brothers’, he left an indelible mark on the history of cinema. His charisma and influence will live on, leaving an unforgettable legacy in the world of cinema.

Alain Delon: 1935 - 2024

Rene Burri

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...

In February and April 2024, Rafał Milach went to the Olympic Training Center to document Ukrainian athletes preparing for one of the most pivotal events of their lives: canoeing.

A few weeks before Milach’s April visit, Russian missiles struck the Trypilska Power Plant, the primary energy source for the Kyiv, Cherkasy, and Zhytomyr regions, situated next to the lake where the canoeists were training. Through his images, Milach explores how the Ukrainian Olympic athletes adjusted to the challenges of wartime conditions amid a full-scale Russian invasion.

Olympic Training in Wartime Ukraine...

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

Der Spiegel commissioned Magnum photographer Emin Özmen in April 2024 to document the training of Palestinian wrestlers in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, ahead of their potential appearance at the 2024 Olympic Games. Accompanied by German journalist Matthias Fiedler, the Magnum photographer followed Ali Aburamaila, 26-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank, on his way to the competition, where he was ultimately defeated by a Kazakh competitor.

At five-foot-two, Aburamaila aspired to compete in the Olympics and to fight in front of millions of spectators, something that fringe sports are usually denied at other major events. In light of the tragic loss of Palestinian life in the Israel-Gaza conflict, he had made Paris a priority for his homeland, the land of his parents and grandparents. "We have a right to live," Aburumaila said, adding that "it would be beneficial for everyone to see that at the Olympics." Aburumaila is accompanied by teammate Abdullah Assaf, 25, born in the diaspora in Chicago, with whom he shares a hotel room, and coach Riad Hassan, 42, born in a refugee camp in Lebanon.

"Their suffering motivates me to persevere," Aburamaila said of his Palestinian counterparts in Gaza. The wrestler added he is motivated by his commitment to Palestine. A native of Hebron in the West Bank, the wrestler offers insights based on his personal experiences and those of his family and friends. He views the Middle East conflict through the lens of a man who believes that Palestinians live in a "prison with walls that reach to the sky.” His observations are shaped by his first-hand experience of the harsh realities of life. Aburumaila attributes his ability to cope with this reality to wrestling.

After his defeat, Aburamaila returned to his home in Turkey, where he lives with his young son, fearing that he would not be able to afford to live there for long.

Palestinian Wrestlers: The Road...

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...

On July 15, the 2024 Republican National Convention will begin. Party members will meet at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to choose a new presidential nominee. The Democratic Party will convene a month later at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, in accordance with standard practice for the party that occupies the White House to hold its national convention second.

From the 1950s onwards, our photographers traveled across the United States on a four-year cycle to document this momentous step in the nation's electoral process and the popular mobilizations that occurred in parallel.

US National Convention Archives...

"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

As the world unites in celebration of athletic excellence, we take a look at the stories by photographers who have a unique take on this celebration of sport.

Olympics

Magnum photographer Thomas Hoepker has died at 88.

Gifted a camera by his grandfather as a boy, Thomas Hoepker had an interest in photography from the age of 14. Born in Munich in 1936, he studied art history and archeology at university and worked as a photographer for Münchner Illustrierte and Kristall between 1960 and 1963. His job at Kristall took him reporting from all over the world. One of Hoepker’s early, major photo stories for them was made on a road trip across the USA and inspired by Robert Frank’s The Americans.

Hoepker joined Stern magazine as a photojournalist in 1964, the same year that Magnum began to distribute his archive. He worked as cameraman and producer of documentary films for German television in 1972, and from 1974 collaborated with his second wife, the journalist Eva Windmoeller, first in East Germany and then in New York, where they moved to work as correspondents for Stern in 1976. From 1978 to 1981 Hoepker was director of photography for the American edition of Geo.

Hoepker took one of the most memorable images of a singularly defining event in the history of the 21st century: a shot of young people relaxing on 9/11 as the World Trade Center burns behind them, which has come to symbolize much of the allegorical power of photography. Hoepker published it five years after the event — he had initially decided to hold back on sharing the image, wishing to respect the solemnity of the atmosphere immediately following the attacks, but it was the subject of much comment when he agreed to its use in a book about photographs of 9/11 in 2006. “Mr. Hoepker's photo is prescient as well as important — a snapshot of history soon to come,” wrote Frank Rich in The New York Times.

In the late 1960s, Elliott Erwitt invited Hoepker to become part of Magnum as a member of the collective. Though Hoepker had been an admirer of Erwitt’s work, he declined, as he was engaged in work with Stern. It was to be around two decades later, in 1989 that Hoepker would finally leave Stern and take on the opportunity to join Magnum, where he was to become president in 2003. On the subject of running an agency with his fellow photographers, he said, “It’s not easy, because we have to deal with big egos of big photographers. But it’s worth it.”

Hoepker made a beloved series on a sports and pop-cultural titan, Muhammad Ali. Across two extraordinary visits to Ali in London and Chicago, Hoepker and his wife Eva Windmoeller followed the boxer as he prepared for a fight and trained on his home turf. Hoepker’s portrait of the fighter jumping atop a bridge on the Chicago River became iconic, but was the result of spontaneous improvisation between the two, rather than any premeditation. Hoepker reflected on Ali’s playful character: “Ali could be widely alert, sharp and observant, he loved to saunter down the streets, to banter with real people. He melted away when he saw children. They adored him, he hugged them, he did some shadow-boxing and then he took sudden naps in the backseat of his chauffeured Lincoln sedan.”

Throughout the time he was employed as a news photographer, he always saw himself as a journalist. It was only after becoming a member of Magnum that he began to recognize the role of the artist within that of the photographer. “A truly strong photojournalistic image is a reproduction of reality, nothing about it can be faked,” he said. “But today, there’s more room for interpretation of reality by the photographer: style, eye and aesthetic all matter. Even at Magnum, everyone has to make his own decision on how far he wants to go in presenting reality through his own eyes.”

Hoepker’s work published in books includes DDR Ansichten — Views of a Vanished Country (2011), a portrait of East Germany spanning over three decades, and Return of the Maya (1999), an investigation of the lives and beliefs of Maya communities in Guatemala. His reportage and features in color revealed to many the alluring landscapes and scenery of America, Japan, China and many other places around the world. He also photographed revered artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. Hoepker received the prestigious Kulturpreis of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie in 1968.

In 1976, Hoepker moved to New York. Later in his career, he shot and produced TV documentaries together with his second wife, Christine Kruchen. A retrospective exhibition, showing 230 images from 50 years of work, toured Germany and other parts of Europe in 2007.

In 2020, after Hoepker was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease, he and Kruchen decided to take a road trip across the US — his home for the past four decades. This resulted in the documentary Dear Memories, exploring his life and work through his memories, released in cinemas in 2022. The same year, Hoepker published The Way It Was, juxtaposing the color photographs from his most recent road trip with the original black-and-white images of the past, taking us on a journey both through his changing sense of America and through time.

During the pandemic, Hoepker and Kruchen began going back through his very first black-and-white film negative files and scanning what they found. One of their discoveries was a series of 10,000 negatives showing a photographic study of life in Italy in the late 1950s — shot with the Leica MP he purchased at 19 years old with the proceeds of his very first picture sales. The photobook Italia, featuring a selection of these early images, was published in 2023 by Buchkunst Berlin.

“The Magnum family has lost one of its dearest members, Thomas Hoepker, today,” writes Magnum President Cristina de Middel. “A true visionary, Thomas's contributions extended beyond his remarkable, playful, poignant photographs. As President of Magnum Photos from 2003 to 2006, he led with unwavering dedication and a commitment to nurturing the next generation of photographers and securing the future of the agency as a relevant entity. His legacy within the Magnum community is one of inspiration, mentorship, and a relentless pursuit of excellence combined with kindness and generosity.

“Thomas Hoepker's work will continue to inspire and educate, reminding us of the power of photography to shape our understanding of the world. He will be deeply missed by his colleagues, friends, and admirers around the globe. Our thoughts are with his family during this difficult time.”

Thomas Hoepker: 1936 - 2024

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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