The Magnum Digest: October 9, 2020
Hannah Price’s Semaphore project on the BJP, Alex Webb’s autumnal fashion shoot in Vogue, new trailer for 'Minamata' with Johnny Depp, plus more
Hannah Price’s project, Semaphore, explored on the BJP
The British Journal of Photography has a published a look into Hannah Price’s project Semaphore, a series completed in 2018 which investigates the ways various people signal their identities. “I wanted to share that we all have to spell [it out],” Price says, “Even to our mothers and family.” Writing for the magazine, Hannah Abel-Hirsch highlights Price’s focus on the various ways that images offer up and limit the information we are able to gather about their subjects. Read it here. Read an overview of Price’s works to date, in her nominee interview, on Magnum here.
New trailer for W. Eugene Smith film released
A film on the story of Magnum photographer W. Eugene Smith’s time spent documenting mercury poisoning in the Japanese fishing town of Minamata will be released in the UK in 2021. This week, Empire magazine shared the exclusive international trailer for the film. Watch it here, and read more about the story of Minamata here, on Magnum.
Abbas’ photographs of Ali vs. Foreman inspire and feature in upcoming graphic novel
The Star Tribune and Games Radar have published features on the new book collaboration between Magnum and Titan Comics, Muhammad Ali, Kinshasa 1974. The graphic novel features Abbas’ images from the era-defining boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman and uses them as a basis to tell an illustrated story of the fight. Previously only available in French, the Titan Comics release makes the book available in English for the first time. Read an interview with writer JD Morvan on Star Tribune here, and see Games Radar’s review here. Abbas’ estate spoke to Magnum about the legacy of the fight — read that feature here.
Stuart Franklin discusses photographing Covid-19 on VICE
In a video on VICE News, Stuart Franklin recounts the challenging environment he witnessed photographing on the intensive care unit at a London hospital, at the peak of the ravages of the summer’s coronavirus outbreak. Working at West Middlesex hospital, Franklin spoke to patients and nurses, and recounts stories of the experiences which have left many of them traumatized. Watch the video here on VICE, and read Stuart Franklin’s essay on why the UK government is implicated in Covid-19 deaths, on Magnum here.
