Press release. Rotterdam June 10, 2020
Magnum Flow is a website which allows Magnum’s members to share contemporary work relating to current events in near-real-time. Magnum Flow is a co-creation with Fotomat.
Magnum Flow is a project which allows Magnum’s members to share contemporary work relating to current events in near-real-time.
New images, writings, artworks from photographers located internationally can be seen in evolving dialogue, alongside informal comments and direct messages. Presented like a diary, Flow reflects Magnum’s diversity of practices and its many voices across differing geographies. Its purpose is as an evolving document reacting to the state of the world.
Magnum Flow can be found here, and is a co-creation with Fotomat.
Magnum Flow evolved from email chains Magnum Photographers exchanged since the outbreak of the pandemic. Messages like the extracts below multiplied into long email
chains, with pictures attached, then photo essays and assignments; some photographers contracted COVID-19; others gave birth; the wife of a former Magnum Staff member passed away a frontline health worker in America who, in the words of Mikhael Subotzky, “succumbed to twin killers—the disease and that country’s tragically incompetent response”.
An unedited diary of the pandemic emerged, which is inscribed with the agency’s long history; Flow is Magnum’s attempt to make sense of these times, and to invite people into the photographers’ conversations and engagement with the world.
Photographer Letters (extracts)
Around the middle of March, as borders were closing, the photographers of Magnum started emailing each other from all over the globe, sharing our very different experiences of the
growing Covid-19 pandemic. See some examples below:
It’s a beautiful day and the streets are packed. You’d never know there was a pandemic upon us. I’ve stopped all physical contact. A strange and soon to be very lonely feeling. I wandered around with a friend, keeping six feet distance between us. We found out the previous night that the mother and brother of a friend had tested positive for Corona. It’s starting to get close. Luckily they are ok so far."
- Peter van Agtmael from 14 March, New York City
"I am seriously worried about my community. It would be the most vulnerable when this virus attacks us. The sanitation system in the informal settlement still uses the bucket system for disposal of human excreta which gets to be cleaned every Friday of a week. This is a huge concern for hygiene considering water is a problem and there aren’t many taps to serve the whole community that is clustered in the shacks. People are worried about how they are going to constantly wash their hands when there isn’t enough water for everyone to keep clean at all times."
- Lindokuhle Sobekwa, 27 March, Johannesburg
"One of my favorite uncles, a tall and gentle giant, is fighting Corona. At home. All hospitals are so full that they have placed beds in parking lots and stadiums. “Stay home, don’t move,
maybe you’ll live,” overworked doctors told him. They gave him some pills. We hope he will live. That is why I walk the streets of Tehran with some mixed feelings. I’m afraid of what the future will bring, of loved ones dying, or even myself being in danger. But I take some comfort that this is a collective and global halt to everything. We are facing this ordeal all together, no one is alone in their house, because we all are. Pressure leads to unity."
- Newsha Tavakolian, 19 March, Teheran
About Magnum Photos
Magnum Photos was founded in Paris in 1947 as an artists’ co-operative by four pioneering photographers: Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger, and David “Chim”
Seymour. The legendary photo agency continues to shape photographic practice and maintains its original values of uncompromising excellence, truth, respect and independence,
representing an idiosyncratic mix of journalist, artist and storyteller. Magnum photographers share a vision to chronicle world events, people, places and culture with a powerful narrative that defies convention, shatters the status quo, redefines history and transforms lives.
About Fotomat
Playfully discover the best way to present photography and video projects online with Fotomat, the new browser based tool for building visual websites. The ability to seamlessly blend photography and video provide powerful new storytelling tools. In a time where disciplinary lines are blurred more and more every day many image-makers are looking for new ways to tell stories. Fotomat offers these new possibilities for anyone who wants to create a visual website, be it a simple portfolio or an immersive online exhibition.
“With this collaboration we can show that Fotomat offers many possibilities for creating rich online publications, quickly. To be able to do this with Magnum and to see how sophisticated
the integration with the Magnum site can be is great. It is an honor to be involved in the steps Magnum photographers are taking to open up more to their audience”, says Rien Swagerman, co-founder and director of Fotomat.
See https://fotomat.app for more information.
Notes to Editors
Magnum Flow is reachable here. Magnum Flow is a co-creation with Fotomat. High-res images, quotes and interviews with some of the photographers will be available for limited
press usage. High-res images, quotes and interviews with some of the photographers will be available for limited press usage during the Square Print Sale only.
Downloads
References
> magnumphotos.com/magnum-flow
Contact for Fotomat
Claire Hoogakker
Contact for Magnum Photos
Eleanor Macnair (London)
eleanormacnair@hotmail.com
+44 (0) 7815 780708
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