LET ME IN
Month, 2022
From post-truth to the pandemic, climate crisis and global conflicts, current times seem dominated by distrust and division. Yet it also makes room for seeking connection – to each other and the world at large.
There’s so much we don’t know about the people closest to us, how can we begin to relate to the experience of others – whether that be from living in a different country, or from experiencing the horrors of a war zone or natural disaster?
The photographer’s role, particularly as a photojournalist, is to get under the surface, to break down barriers and get to ‘the truth’.
‘Let Me In’ features 6 Magnum photographers that move beyond traditional documentary photography through subtle narratives, merging fiction and reality, with intense emotional and psychological engagement.
CHRISTOPHER ANDERSEN
b.1970, Canada.
Joined Magnum in 2007.
Christopher Anderson’s work is emotionally charge. Though rooted in war reporage, today his work captures more intimate and personal moments with his family – all linked in its ability to position the viewer as part of the scene. Anderson’s work invites ‘us’, the viewer ‘in’, sharing how he felt during these carefully chosen moments. His photographs of his daughter ‘Pia’ are beautiful, yet mysterious. We’re drawn into her world by her presence, but so much remains unknown, emphasized by a shadow hiding her features or an enigmatic far-off gaze.
“I finally understood what a picture can be about – it’s about responding to a moment that’s important to you… I wasn’t trying to make a good photograph, or tell a story. I was literally communcating how I felt.”
_ CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON
TRENT PARKE
b.1970, Canada.
Joined Magnum in 2007.
EXPLORING IDENTITY, PLACE & FAMILY
Trent Parke is recognised for his dramatic and highly emotive images of his home country, Australia, shot in stark black & white tones. In his series ‘Minutes to Midnight’ and ‘The Seventh Wave’, he places us, the viewer, at the heart of the action. In ‘After the Rodeo’ the energy of the horses is palpable, their restless intensity captured in seemingly perpetual motion. In ‘Bondi Beach’, his swimmers similarly twist and turn. He invites us to share in this intense and turbulent moment, as if we were swimming alongside them.
“For me, it’s all about emotional connection.”
_ TRENT PARKE
CRISTINA DE MIDDEL
b.1975, Spain
Associate Magnum Member since 2019
EXPLORING PHOTOGRAPHY’S AMBIGUOUS RELATIONSHIP TO TRUTH
Cristina de Middel is part storyteller, part scenographer and part documentary photographer.Moving away from traditional photojournalism, she has embraced fantasy and the surreal tobuild a more nuanced portrayal of reality. De Middel’s series ‘This Is What Hatred Did’ is are imagination of Amos Tutuola’s 1954 novel ‘My Life in the Bush of Ghosts’, set in the streetsof Makoko, a floating village in the city of Lagos, Nigeria. Weaving fact with fiction, she shines alight on the challenges of navigating trust, in times of conflict and abuse of power. Through acollaborative process, De Middel
gives her subjects agency in how they wish to be seen.
Does De Middel’s veil of mysticism allow us to get closer to the truth?
