Magnum Welcomes Four New Members

This week, Magnum photographers, estates, and staff gathered in London for the Annual General Meeting — a tradition that has taken place each year since the cooperative’s beginnings in 1947. Over the course of the week, photographers and staff discussed business and priorities at the London Gallery, led by Cristina De Middel, the current president.

A key item on the agenda is always the potential for new additions to Magnum’s membership. As an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographers, Magnum has a structured process for introducing new members. Photographers first join the organization as nominees, before progressing to become associates, and then finally gaining admission to the collective as full, lifelong members — a process that takes four years. The entire membership votes on new additions at each stage of progression. 

This year, there are no new nominees, but one photographer has progressed to associate status, and four photographers have become full members.

The 2023 meeting welcomes Gregory Halpern, Nanna Heitmann, Lúa Ribeira, and Rafał Milach as members. 

Zied Ben Romdhane moves from nominee to associate member.

Myriam Boulos and William Keo remain nominees. 

As well as the annual vote on membership, the AGM is a creative meeting of minds — a chance for the entire cooperative to reflect back on the past year and exchange ideas about the future. This year, a series of discussions took place around Magnum’s activities, including group discussions on topics such as AI and the changing landscape of the photography industry.

A series of events open to the public were also held throughout the week, including a group book signing with 13 photographers present, and a group exhibition based around the upcoming new edition of the Thames & Hudson published book, Magnum Magnum, which now features 25 additional photographers and 125 new images.

Magnum’s second London-based film festival also took place at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, screening films by Susan Meiselas in Nicaragua, Sohrab Hura in India, Newsha Tavakolian in Iran, and Emin Özmen in Turkey. 

“The AGM is a very special time of the year when we all meet to carefully project the future of Magnum,” says Cristina De Middel. “This year was even more special because we added four new strong and distinctive voices to the choir that we make as an agency and that will certainly help us dialogue with the ongoing challenges of the industry and our determination to stay relevant and reliable as a creative group of people.”

Next year’s AGM is due to take place in France. News of the submission process for new nominees will be communicated in the new year.