Magnum Paris - Paris

[PARA] Museum Hanmi, in collaboration with Magnum Photos, presents Magnum Between Pages 1943–2025 , an expansive exhibition tracing the evolution of the photobook as a powerful creative and political medium. Featuring approximately 150 photobooks from Magnum’s esteemed libraries in New York, London, and Paris, the exhibition marks the first time these volumes have been brought together in a single venue. Rather than simply showcasing the works of individual photographers, the exhibition foregrounds the photobook as a site of experimentation: one that has continually broadened the boundaries of documentary practice and public storytelling. [PARA] The exhibition opens with a look at Magnum’s founding in 1947 by legendary photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, George Rodger, and David Seymour. This segment introduces visitors to the cooperative’s ethos and the legacy of its members, whose commitment to visual integrity and independent authorship remains foundational to Magnum’s identity today. [PARA] A key focus of the exhibition is Magnum’s documentation of world events through photobooks that transcend journalistic reportage. Indeed, photographers such as Werner Bischof, Abbas, and Susan Meiselas have captured pivotal moments from the Korean War and Iranian Revolution, to 9/11 and the recent COVID-19 pandemic. The exhibition explores how these images were initially published in global media and later recontextualized in photobooks that invite deeper reflection and long-term engagement. [PARA] Another segment, curated by Magnum photographer Martin Parr, examines the rise of the photobook in the 21st century. Spotlighting a younger generation of Magnum photographers, this incorporates selections from Parr’s own collection and his Sofa Sessions video interviews, which delve into the unique creative processes that underpin key publications. [PARA] Vintage photobooks are also featured alongside original photographic prints from Museum Hanmi’s own collection. These pairings emphasize the physicality of the photobook and recall the analog era’s editing practices, where layout, rhythm, and material structure shaped the reading experience as much as the images themselves. [PARA] A rare glimpse into an unrealized project is offered through Eye to Eye , a collaborative portrait book initiated by Magnum’s New York bureau in the 1980s but never published. Visitors can examine a dummy book and internal correspondence that reveal the collaborative challenges and ambitions behind Magnum’s editorial projects. [PARA] Finally, a segment curated by Korean photographer Kyungwoo Chun takes a deeply human approach. Titled Life-Time , it views each photobook as a metaphor for a life lived. From Chien-Chi Chang’s The Chain , documenting psychiatric patients in Taiwan, to Alec Soth’s Dog Days Bogotá , which reflects on the adoption of his daughter, the selection reveals the emotional and ethical range of the photobook form. [PARA] To deepen engagement, a specially designed reading room invites visitors to browse select photobooks and experience their tactile and structural qualities. A printed tabloid publication accompanies the show, offering extended commentary and context in an accessible, newspaper-style format.

Jakopič Gallery presents a major exhibition of work by Paolo Pellegrin (b. 1964, Rome), one of Italy’s most prominent photographers and a globally acclaimed photojournalist. Over the course of more than three decades, Pellegrin has become a leading visual chronicler of conflict, human suffering, and resilience. A full member of Magnum Photos since 2005 and the recipient of eleven World Press Photo awards and the Robert Capa Gold Medal among others, he is known for a distinctive visual language that blends expressive use of light and shadow with lyrical, deeply empathetic storytelling. An Anthology is not a chronological retrospective, but a carefully curated dialogue among photographic series spanning continents and decades. It opens with three nearly black images of interiors from Gaza, where light enters only through ruptures left by gunfire – fragments of trauma and survival. It concludes with almost entirely white photographs from Antarctica, where cracks in the snow hint at unseen instability beneath a surface of purity. Between these two poles of darkness and light, blackness and whiteness, lies the full complexity of humanity – captured through Pellegrin’s lens attuned to every shade in between. The exhibition takes us from war-torn cities to scenes of environmental collapse, from fleeting moments of hope to the aftermath of destruction. Pellegrin’s early project on ethnic Albanian refugees fleeing Kosovo (1999) already reveals his instinct for intimacy and expressive form. He went on to document major global crises: the second Palestinian intifada (2002–2004), the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq (2002–2003), the conflict in Darfur (2004), the Indian Ocean tsunami (2005), and Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon (2006). His sustained focus on Gaza – from Operation Cast Lead (2009) to young civilians bearing the lasting scars of war (2012) – remains among the most powerful visual testimonies in contemporary photojournalism. In Syria and ISIS-held Mosul (2016), Pellegrin captured the devastation of urban warfare and its toll on civilians. In parallel, his work on migration across the Mediterranean (Libya and Greece, 2015) exposes political failure and human vulnerability. His most recent series from Ukraine (2022/2023) likewise reveals his distinctive approach – a departure from the spectacle of war toward the quiet acts of collective mourning. Rather than scenes of combat, Pellegrin captures civilians kneeling by roadsides as fallen soldiers are returned home – images that foreground grief, solidarity, and dignity. Beyond conflict, his practice extends to environmental issues with stark images from Antarctica (2017) and Australia’s forest fires (2022), confronting viewers with the fragility of nature. Photographs, several among them vintage prints, and videos have been carefully selected from Pellegrin’s personal archive and the archive of Magnum Photos, which also produced the exhibition and collaborated with Jakopič Gallery. An extensive monograph, Event Horizon , published by Marsilio Arte, is available for purchase.