The Photographers’ Selection: 2024

In the last few weeks of 2024, Magnum photographers were asked to reflect back on the year to date, and select three images from their archive that stood out. From the images submitted, Magnum President Cristina de Middel has now curated a selection of images to represent 2024 through the eyes of the cooperative.

“Another year gone. Another year of wars and marvels,” she writes. “Another year where photography is being stretched to the limits, questioning itself, questioning what it even means to take a picture in a world where images are free, manipulated, and confused. Magnum survived another year, holding tight to our mission and our responsibilities, even when the world around us sometimes seems to spin out of control. We explored the power of the image, proving that photography is still a tool that matters — even in this polarized world where everyone has an opinion and very few have perspective.”

Here we present the final selection. To begin, over in the snowy mountains near Aomori, Japan, De Middel’s photograph shows Spanish artist Luis Úrculo taking a break from 21st-century technology.

Gregory Halpen contributes an image from the recently published King, Queen, Knave, a series of pictures inspired by his hometown of Buffalo and made over the course of 20 years. 

This year, Alessandra Sanguinetti traveled to the Occupied West Bank, working with local Palestinian communities to document life alongside illegal Israeli settlers. Here, a young shepherd drinks from the main stream in Al-Auja, a town north of Jericho. 

Over at Warsaw University, Rafał Milach continued his ongoing project of photographing protests in Poland (published in his 2021 photobook Strike). This image was made on the 19th day of a student university occupation, with protestors demanding that university authorities condemn the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip and stop cooperation with Israeli universities.

Magnum Nominee Salih Basheer shares an image from his ongoing project The Return, in which he documents the stories of Sudanese people displaced by the war.

In Romania, Thomas Dworzak photographs training locations at a NATO base led by the French army. 

In Bakhmut, Ukraine, close to the war’s frontlines, Nanna Heitmann photographs an injured Russian soldier after arriving at an underground hospital.

Continuing his documentation of the long-term effects of war on Ukraine, Chien-Chi Chang shares an image of military intelligence Apatta Battalion during a night shooting training session near Odesa.

This year, Newsha Tavakolian made several trips to Lagos, Nigeria for a series that seeks to understand the making of modern life in Nigeria by exploring how different communities coexist in Lagos itself. The images form part of the collaborative Beyond the Silence project, which brings together the work of Magnum photographers with the voices of practicing photographers from around the globe,

In the days following the assassination of Hezbollah’s secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah in late September, Myriam Boulos photographed the impact of increased Israeli airstrikes on the capital city, sharing her experience in the article View From Lebanon.

On assignment for The New Yorker, Moises Saman documented the trail of Captagon-smuggling from Syria to Jordan. Below, we see a desert landscape along the Jordan-Saudi Arabia border, where most of the amphetamine makes its way into Saudia Arabia.

Also published this year in The New Yorker was a series by Paolo Pellegrin from the small towns of Kirkenes and Vardø in northern Norway. Alongside journalist Ben Taub, they examine the increasing intensity of Russia’s intelligence operations in the region.⁠

Yael Martínez contributes a collaged photograph of a dancer playing a ritual in the pyramid of the sun from the series Mixcoatl: Cloud Serpent, which was featured in the Magnum Foundation exhibition Heritage in Focus at Paris Photo in November. 

Mark Power, who published Good Morning, America (Volume IV) earlier this year, continued with his mammoth project of documenting the cultural and physical landscape of the Unites States. Below is the demolition of the Tropicana Casino Hotel, which opened in 1957, from a trip to Las Vegas.

As part of her coverage of the U.S. Election this year, Susan Meiselas photographed protestors outside a Trump event at Madison Square Garden a week before the election.

In a collaboration between Magnum and Swiss newspaper Le Temps in the run-up to the U.S. election, Larry Towell traveled to Arizona to document ongoing challenges and local perceptions regarding immigration at the Mexican border.

Continuing to fuse his passion for both boxing and photography, Jérôme Sessini photographed 14-year-old Mexican boxer Juan Pérez, who holds the World Boxing Council’s amateur belt in the 38–40kg category.

Richard Kalvar shares an image from this year’s Paris Photo at the Grand Palais. At the Bruce Silverstein stand, he captured two men admiring a Robert Mapplethorpe self-portrait.

From Saint-Petersburg, Gueorgui Pinkhassov photographs tea time at the Europe Hotel.

Harry Gruyaert contributes an image of street reflections from his native Belgium. 

Alex Webb photographs an Easter picnic scene at Templo La Hermosa in El Paso.

Boats, balloons, bikes and bystanders feature in the image from Steve McCurry, from the city of Mandalay, Myanmar.

Patrick Zachmann’s five-year project documenting the reconstruction of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris drew to a close in November of this year as it reopened at the beginning of December. Pictured here, the cathedral’s restored interior just over 10 days before being unveiled to the public for the first time.

From India, Raghu Rai contributes an image of everyday scenes around the Manikarnika Ghat, where Hindus are cremated.

Trent Parke captures a visual contrast of fire and water as a boy jumps off a jetty in Adelaide, shot during the peak of summer on the Australian coast. The series was featured in the collaboration between Magnum and Veuve Clicquot, Emotions of the Sun, where eight Magnum photographers were given a carte-blanche to interpret the force of the sun.

Matt Black submits a photograph of a lone figure in downtown Miami, from a trip to Oklahoma from earlier this year.

From his latest photobook, Advice for Young Artists, Alec Soth selects a self-portrait from the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena.

From Sohrab Hura is a drawing from his latest book Things Felt But Not Quite Expressed, one of the many currently on view in his major exhibition, Mother, at MoMA PS1 in Queens, New York.

Lúa Ribeira selects an image from her series The Carers, in which she subverts traditional expectations of a typical “mother-baby” photograph by entrusting her baby to women she would bump into in the streets of her hometown, Bristol.

Stuart Franklin continued to document trees of the world, with the image featured here representing the pollarded beech forests of the Basque Country.

Carolyn Drake contributes an image from her ongoing project, Glorify Yourself, in which through a series of self-portraits, she satirizes a “beauty and charm guide” for women, popular in the U.S. during the 1940s and 50s. 

Both Drake and Ribeira’s images above were featured in a four-part exhibition in Arles this year, titled Magnum Connection, and organized in collaboration with Fujifilm.

Zied Ben Romdhane photographs two teenagers on a beach in northern Tunisia, reminiscent of his series The Escape, a dreamlike exploration of reality for Tunisian youth,  one of the winners of the 2024 World Press Photo Contest. 

During a trip to Iceland, Martin Parr photographs a couple enjoying the Hvammsvik Hot Springs.

Jonas Bendiksen selects a silhouetted image of his wife on a cold winter morning in Oslo, Norway.

Jim Goldberg selects a collage titled “The Last Cigarette” of an elderly man smoking.

“If this year taught us anything, it’s that we need connection more than ever,” De Middel concludes. “The kind of human connection that no algorithm, no AI-generated nonsense, can replace. The kind of connection you’ll find in the images we’re proud to share with you now.”