Magnum Foundation’s 2024 Year in Review
Clockwise from top left: Miora Rajaonary, Laila Annmarie Stevens, Victor Zea Diaz, Yael Martínez, María Valqui, Christopher Gregory-Rivera (left), and Hashem Shakeri (right)
Storytellers are essential. We believe in the importance of photographers who illuminate critical issues in their own communities. At the Magnum Foundation, we provide them with space to collaborate, experiment, and deepen the impact of their work.
In 2024, our grants and fellowships supported over 93 photographers from 33 countries whose projects challenge dominant narratives and offer new ways of seeing and understanding. Below are some highlights of the breadth of activity and achievements of our creative community over the past year. It is an honor to support their work.
We supported creative storytelling about the climate crisis
Amid drought and famine, communities in Madagascar are responding with more sustainable methods of food production. From the project The Common Ground by Miora Rajaonary.
Our Heat Fellowship brings together photographers who are shedding light on the profound impacts of climate crisis in their home communities, and provides them with space to slow down, experiment with new approaches, and ultimately deepen the impact of their work.
In June, the nine fellows in the first cycle of the fellowship wrapped up their projects, following two workshops in Amman, Jordan. With work on climate-based migration, pollution-driven health disparities, and indigenous origin stories and collective memory, these projects not only offer intimate windows into the deep and wide-ranging impacts of the climate crisis, but also inspire pathways towards recovery and repair. See their projects here.
In November, we announced the cohort of nine photographers who will participate in the second cycle of the fellowship. In December, they gathered in Oaxaca, Mexico, for their first of two workshops.
On the coasts of Bangladesh, rising sea levels threaten to submerge entire communities, and increasing water salinity has brought devastating impacts on women’s health. From the project Water/Life by Farhana Satu.
Fellows learning about local agroecology initiatives in Jordan during their January workshop. Photo by Jenna Masoud.
“I’m trying to explore this story from the intimacy of my family and what happens with the territory, but also with their minds, the spirits, and their bodies in this process...the invisible consequences of all this climate change.”
We showcased projects that shed light on suppressed histories
Sourced through an ongoing open-call for Chinese Americans in New York to share their intergenerational family histories, Alan Chin’s Chinese American Family Albums is an archive that brings together troves of photographs and ephemera that document the role of Chinese Americans in the larger history of immigration in the United States.
Building on our 2022 Counter Histories Fellowship exploring the creative possibilities offered by the gaps, absences, and silences in historical records, we spent the past two years amplifying this expanded and collaborative approach to historical inquiry and photographic storytelling.
In collaboration with the Magnum Foundation, the Spring 2024 issue of Aperture magazine was “Counter Histories”
In the Spring, we partnered with Aperture for a special “Counter Histories” issue of the magazine, and produced several exhibitions and public programs at the Magnum Foundation, CPW Kingston, Photoville, and online. We also supported fellows from our 2022 cohort with second stage grants and other opportunities to experiment with new models for engaging audiences. See highlights of these activations here.
This Fall, we ran an open call for a second cycle of the Counter Histories Fellowship, which in the coming year will support an additional ten photographers working to reframe archives and challenge dominant historical narratives.
We mentored community-based photographers around the world
Photo by ADPP Alumni Fellow Heba Khalifa, who is collaborating with a therapist to lead a seven month workshop designed as a spiritual healing journey for seven photographers who are dealing with childhood or war-related traumas.
Through a number of initiatives, we provide grants and mentorship to photographers who are illuminating the critical issues in their own communities.
The Arab Documentary Photography Program (ADPP) supports photographers living and working in the Middle East and North Africa. Founded in 2014 to combat stereotypical representations of the region, this program has gone on to support an expansive and connected network of over 100 photographers, whose projects draw on their lived experiences to explore topics including diaspora, conflict, memory, and belonging. Now in its tenth year, the 2024-25 cycle of ADPP – a joint initiative of the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, the Prince Claus Fund, and the Magnum Foundation – supported eight new photographers, and launched a new alumni fellowship focused on second stage project support and alumni-driven collaborations, in partnership with For Freedoms. Read more here.
“An analogy of the layers of time, stones, dust, and structures that have built our present and our identity” for communities surrounding the ancient city of Teotihuacan in Mexico. Photo collage by Yael Martínez, for our collaboration with the World Monuments Fund.
Exploring the complex symbolic language that is molded into the architecture and communities surrounding the traditional Asante shrines in Ghana. Image by Eric Gyamfi, for our collaboration with the World Monuments Fund.
Our Heritage in Focus exhibition at Paris Photo with World Monuments Fund. Photo by David Atlan.
For the past two years, we’ve partnered with the World Monuments Fund to document endangered heritage sites worldwide through the eyes of their caretakers. Drawing on Magnum Foundation’s international network of socially engaged photographers, we paired regional photographers with sites on the 2022 WMF Watch List, resulting in eleven in-depth projects that explore the interconnectedness of people, place, and the transmission of shared histories. This year, we exhibited these projects at Paris Photo and locally in communities surrounding the sites.
We published a series on health equity in the United states in The Atlantic and another on the changing shape of labor organizing in Mother Jones. And for the 2024 Inge Morath Award, we recognized Sara Kontar’s long-term project, Therefore, I Cut.
We sustained a creative home base for photography in our New York City community and beyond
Photo by NYC Fellow Destiny Mata, whose L.E.S. Yearbook project is a multimedia collaboration with residents from Lower East Side public housing that celebrates the spirit and legacy of their community through photography and conversations between elders and youth.
From our base in New York City, we’ve been honored to share space in support and celebration of our global community of vital storytellers and leaders.
This year, we hosted 31 events with over 1,566 attendees, both in-person and online. Events included book events and panels with Jim Goldberg, Thana Faroq, Matt Black, Eric Gyamfi, Lyle Ashton Harris, and more; workshops with local high school photography classes; virtual presentations by our fellows; the opening of our Counter Histories exhibition; and roundtable presentations from grantees visiting New York City.
We also continue to invest in the career development of emerging photographers in our local community. Since 2011, our New York City Fellowship has provided a launchpad for over 30 early-career photographers living and working in New York City. This year, we welcomed three new fellows to the program – Yolanda Hoskey, Collin Riggins, and Mateo Ruiz González – and launched a new exhibition of work from this fellowship that weaves together a tapestry of New York City that honors the places we find home.
Our “Can American Labor Seize the Moment?” collaboration with Mother Jones and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project supporting stories on organized labor in the United States, presented at Photoville. Photo by Jeff Rae.
NYC Fellow Destiny Mata (right) at a prom-themed celebration of her L.E.S. Yearbook project celebrating communities stories on the Lower East Side. Photo by Laila Annmarie Stevens.
Throughout the year, we’ve been honored to be in community with our global network of artists and organizers. Thank you to all of our partners, supporters, friends, grantees, and fellows for keeping us engaged, informed, and connected.
We are grateful for your partnership in supporting the visual storytellers whose diverse voices and visions shape our communities for the better
Tracing the Ecuadorian migrant experience in New York City and Castilla-La Mancha, Spain, using the artist's family’s story as a blueprint. From the project Remnants of Forking Paths by Johan Orellana.
More highlights from our community this year:
Victor Zea Diaz and Diego López Calvín present a local installation of their project The Legacy of the Stone at the Yanacancha-Huaquis Cultural Landscape in Peru, as part of our Heritage in Focus collaboration with World Monuments Fund.
Distribution of a zine featuring Counter Histories Fellow Agata Szymanska-Medina's project on judicial reform in Poland.
Maria Valquí looks at slides during the January Heat Fellowship workshop in Amman, Jordan. Photo by Jenna Masoud.
2024-25 Heat Fellows at their December workshop in Oaxaca, Mexico. Photo by Isadora Romero.
CPW Kingston Executive Director Brian Wallis (left), Counter Histories Fellow Naomieh Jovin (center) and Magnum Foundation Executive Director Kristen Lubben (right) at the Center for Photography at Woodstock at the opening of an exhibition of work from our Counter Histories initiative. Photo by Alan Chin.
Experimental installations by the fellows at the MMAG Foundation in Amman, Jordan. Photo by Jenna Masoud.
Mentor Nandita Raman (center) speaking to the 2023-24 Heat Fellows at the their January workshop in Amman, Jordan. Photo by Jenna Masoud.
A visitor at our Spring 2024 “Counter Histories” exhibition opening and Aperture magazine launch party at Magnum Foundation. Photo by Destiny Mata.
Members of the MF Team install an exhibition of work by alumni of our NYC Fellowship. Photo by Sarah Perlmutter.
Fellows and members of the Magnum Foundation and CPW Kingston teams at the Center for Photography at Woodstock for the opening of an exhibition of work from our Counter Histories initiative.
2023-24 Heat Fellows visit Wadi Rum at the conclusion of their June workshop in Jordan. Photo by Jenna Masoud.
Farhana Satu presents during the June Heat Fellowship workshop in Amman, Jordan. Photo by Jenna Masoud.
Tace Stevens (left) at a CPP Australia exhibition of her project documenting the experience of Aboriginal elders who survived the Kinchela Boys Home in Australia, as part of our Heritage in Focus collaboration with World Monuments Fund.
Victor Zea Diaz and Diego López Calvín in front of their project The Legacy of the Stone, at our Heritage in Focus exhibition at Paris Photo with World Monuments Fund. Photo by David Atlan.
2024-25 Heat Fellows at their December workshop in Oaxaca, Mexico. Photo by Isadora Romero.
Magnum Foundation team members Tif Ng (left) and Sarah Perlmutter (right) in front of our shipping container exhibition of work by Counter Histories Fellow Prasiit Sthapit at Photoville. Photo by Cheney Orr.
Alumni of our NYC Fellowship co-curating an exhibition of their work with members of the Magnum Foundation team. Photo by Tif Ng.
Magnum Foundation Executive Director Kristen Lubben (left) with Josef Koudelka (center) and Aperture Executive Director Sarah Meister (right), at the launch party for the Spring 2024 issue of Aperture magazine, “Counter Histories.” Photo by Destiny Mata.
2024-25 Heat Fellows at their December workshop in Oaxaca, Mexico.
The work of Magnum Foundation is made possible through the generosity of the Henry Luce Foundation, Foundation for a Just Society, Commonwealth Fund, Acton Family Giving, Rosenthal Family Foundation, Select Equity Group Foundation, Genevieve McMillan-Reba Stewart Foundation, Henry Nias Foundation, Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation, William Talbott Hillman Foundation, Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust, and Cowles Charitable Trust.
Support is also provided by Magnum Foundation's Board, our Circle of Friends, and the generosity of individual donors.