The Magnum Digest: May 22, 2020
Paolo Pellegrin documents his family in isolation, Nanna Heitmann photographs the "red zone" in a Moscow hospital battling COVID-19, Sohrab Hura wins Oberhausen film festival award, and more from Magnum this week
Paolo Pellegrin on documenting family for The New York Times
Last weekend The New York Times published a feature by Paolo Pellegrin of images the photographer had taken of his own family, alongside a written reflection on his time spent isolating with them. Pellegrin had been working on assignment earlier in the year documenting wildfires in Australia when he was forced to return to Switzerland, where he and his family are currently based. See the feature here.
Nanna Heitmann photographs the “red zone” at Moscow Hospital no.52
Magnum nominee Nanna Heitmann was recently on assignment in Moscow Hospital no.52 for Russian news platform Takie Dela. Heitmann visited the wards where the most severely-afflicted patients were being treated — known as the “red zone”— and reported on the extreme circumstances she witnessed there, finding examples of resilience displayed by staff and patients alike.
Heitmann told the paper (translated from Russian), “The doctor who brought me in said, ‘Let’s just stand here and look.’ And I said, ‘No, just stood there like that I can’t look at it.’ I was too scared. A camera at least gives some distance. When I shoot, I can think about how to make a good image, and not about what is happening around me. I think if the doctors just stood and looked, they would not bear it it either. They cope only because they work, because they rush to help patients. ” See the images here.
Stuart Franklin’s photographs of ICU medics in The Guardian
The Guardian has featured interviews with medical staff from two London hospitals severely-impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Stuart Franklin spoke to, and photographed Jade Thorne, a nurse at the Nightingale Hospital, as well as Teresa Uithaler, and Dr Rima Sinha, a nursing sister and a doctor at West Middlesex Hospital for the piece. See the feature here.
Sohrab Hura wins Oberhausen film festival award
The 66th iteration of the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen was held online last week. In an award ceremony on the festival’s final night, Sohrab Hura’s 2019 film, Bittersweet, won two prizes — one of which was awarded by the program’s International Jury, while the other was awarded by the Jury of the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia. Read more about Hura’s film and see the full announcement here.
Alex Majoli and Jérôme Sessini featured in online COVID-19 platform
Photography festival Cortona On the Move, established in 2011 in the Italian town of Cortona, has launched a new online platform for showcasing work made by international photographers in response to the impact of COVID-19, which includes work by Magnum photographers. Alex Majoli’s documentation of the effects of the virus on Italy can be viewed here, while Jérôme Sessini’s photographs of medical responses in Eastern France can be viewed here. A chapter by Nanna Heitmann is also coming to the site soon. Browse the entire project here.
