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On the 3rd of August 2020, the dismantling of the famous organ of Notre Dame de Paris which had miraculously survived the fire in April 2019 started.
Even though the instrument escaped direct damage from the fire, it has been heavily affected by the dust from the spire which burnt down and suffered serious heat damage from the fire and from last summer’s heatwave.
The organ which was built in 1733 is made of 8000 pipes, 115 stops and a console with 5 keyboards. Due to the unusual working conditions, three different companies have been charged with the operation. While the console has been successfully taken out on Monday August 31st, workers are now disassembling the 8000 pipes.
The operation which is expected to last 5 months will be followed by a full renovation before being reassembled in the cathedral. The intent is to have it play the Te Deum on the 16th of April 2024, 5 years after the fire, as wished by President Macron.

Magnum photographer Patrick Zachmann has been documenting the work site, providing some insight into the complex operation.

Dismantling Notre-Dame's Organ

Jimi Hendrix died 50 years ago, on September 18th, 1970.

September 18th 2020, 50 Years Since...

Since Sunday October 8th, 2017, wildfires have been sweeping through large parts of California with devastating effect. As of the 12th 191,000 acres have burned with 31 people killed and 3,500 structures destroyed. 285 people are still reported missing in the wine-growing Sonoma County. Santa Rosa, located 50 miles north of San Francisco, has been hit hard with entire neighborhoods being incinerated. Thousands of firefighters from around the country have come to combat the fires.
Alessandra Sanguinetti traveled to Santa Rosa to document the destruction.

Northern California Wildfires (2017)...

Nanna Heitmann

In September and October, 2018 Carolyn Drake documented the devastation caused by two of the many wildfires that swept through California during the Summer of 2018.

The Carr Fire, which occurred in Shasta and Trinity counties, was the seventh most destructive in state history. It consumed 230,000 acres of land, destroyed 1,600 structures, caused more than $1.6B in damages, and resulted in in 8 deaths.

The Mendocino Complex Fire was the largest of its type in state history. Composed of two wildfires, the River Fire and Ranch Fire, it covered 460,000 acres, destroyed 280 buildings, caused $257M in damages, and resulted in the death of one firefighter.

After the Smoke Clears (2018)

The trial of fourteen suspects accused of providing support to the terrorists who perpetrated the January 2015 attacks on Paris' Charlie Hebdo office and a Kosher supermarket, will begin on September 2, 2020. The trial had originally been scheduled to begin in May but was delayed due to Covid confinement rules.

On January 7, 2015, Al-Qaeda gunmen Cherif and Said Kouachi walked into satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo's office and opened fire, killing 12 people and injuring 11. Two days later, ISIL supporter Amedy Coulibaly, a close friend of the Kouachis, entered the Hypercacher supermarket in the Porte de Vincennes, took hostages and killed four Jewish shoppers.
The Kouachis and Coulibaly were all killed by the police.

Trial Begins for Hebdo and Hypercacher...

On assignment for Vanity Fair, Bruce Gilden photographed the crowd at a March 2nd Donald Trump rally in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Trump Rally in Charlotte, NC

The Golden Triangle, the geographic location where Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar meet, is home to a billion-dollar drug industry. This "black zone", shut off to foreigners, is the source of narcotics that could be found in cities around the world.
The Kings Romans resort, in the heart of the Golden Triangle, is carved out of a special economic zone (SEZ) where its lavish casino and venues host heavy gambling, drug trade and human trafficking.
“Yaba” or crazy pills is a meth-and-caffeine tablet originally produced to stimulate pack horses on dense terrain. With a high that lasts for days, it causes rotted teeth and skin and users are described as wild-eyed zombies. With increasing numbers of casinos in SEZs, Yaba has caused a rising meth epidemic. “We are talking about guys in Myanmar bigger than El Chapo” says Jeremy Douglas from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

The Golden Triangle

In the Spring of 2020, when New York City was an epicenter of Covid-19 cases, all local services related to medicine and death became overwhelmed. While great attention was given to health professionals who were fighting to treat the infected, funeral homes quietly struggled with maintaining operating as they were tasked with preparing and burying the influx of those who had succumbed to the virus. The city saw it's highest number of fatalities during the first half of April, when 600 to 800 New Yorkers were dying each day. On April 6th, Patrick Kearns, the co-owner of the Leo F. Kearns Funeral Homes, told Vanity Fair that he had 40 bodies in his care whereas he typically only has two or three on an average day.

In May, Peter van Agtmael photographed one of Leo F. Kearns' locations in hard-hit Queens, for Vanity Fair.

Funeral Home in the Covid-19 Epicenter...

In Warsaw, Poland on 7th August, 2020, hundreds of people protested against homophobia and discrimination. The march erupted after arrest order of LGBT activist Margo accused of causing damage in June to a truck promoting false anti-LGBT propaganda. The protests come amid an intensifying standoff in Poland between the LGBT rights movement and the conservative government, which has declared it an alien, dangerous “ideology.” President Andrzej Duda, who was sworn in for a second term Thursday, won re-election on a strong anti-LGBT platform, and social tensions have been rising. The police brutally pacified the protestors. Rafal Milach covers the ongoing story.

Protest Against Anti-LGBT Discrimination...

This project is dedicated to winners of various state and local competitions held between 2010-2013 and supported by the Belarusian authorities.
The list of the winners also includes the best of the best in contests promoting beauty or public space maintenance. The best hunter of the Ivacevichi region, the most beautiful staircase of Minsk, the best public canteen of the Republic of Belarus, the Best Nurse of Minsk to the best couple in love. Winners are present in kolkhozes, schools, public institutions, nightclubs, village discos and on Boards of Honour in almost each Belarusian town.

Between 2010 and 2013, Rafal photographed winners and places of various competitions promoted by the Belarusian authorities. This project shows poker-faced and sometimes lowered-headed winners of the country during that time. Allowing us to see a form of sociological vulnerability.

Format: Hardcover.
Size: 16.5 x 22.2cm.
Pages: 112.Design : Rafal Milach & Ania Nalecka
Publisher: GOST 2014

The Winners

On August 6th, 1945 the city of Hiroshima was destroyed when the atomic bomb "Little Boy" was dropped by the Enola Gay, a US B-29 bomber. 70,000 people were killed instantly, and tens of thousands would die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning.

75th Anniversary of Hiroshima Atomic...

Beloved American Civl Rights leader and politician John Lewis has died at the age of 80.
As a young man, Lewis and fellow activists took great risks to confront institutionalized racism in the American south by engaging in nonviolent forms of protest. In 1963, he became chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and during his tenure, he organized demonstrations and voter-registration drives. Lewis would then go on to serve as the head of numerous organizations dedicated to community service and justice.
John Lewis was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1987 and was reelected by his Georgia constituency sixteen times. He was an outspoken opponent to Donald Trump and his policies, which lead to occasional public spats between the two.

John Lewis: 1940 - 2020

July 16, 2020
(From Magnum President, Olivia Arthur)

It is with immense sadness that we announce the passing of our great colleague and friend Paul Fusco. Paul has been a member of the Magnum community since 1973 and will be remembered by his colleagues for his incredible kindness, and the deep sensitivity and humanity that he brought to his photography.
Empathizing with his subjects, and photographing them with much respect, Paul covered stories ranging from police brutality in New York to the long-term effects of the Chernobyl disaster and people living with AIDS in California. In 1968 he photographed the spectators lined along the route of Bobby Kennedy's funeral train from New York to Washington, capturing the emotion of the nation and becoming one of the most celebrated series of photographs of the time.
Magnum Photographers from across the generations remember him for the inspiration his work gave them as well as his generosity within the community. His presence will be missed and his legacy will be remembered.

"Dear Paul, For our generation, you were truly the artist who defined the humanistic view and for me, really exemplified the creative spirit of Magnum. I will always remember your kindness and gentle spirit."
(Bruce Davidson)

"There are few words to describe Paul: kind beyond kind, humane beyond what humane can be."
(Gilles Peress)

"The depth and commitment of his work has always been an inspiration, and of course Funeral Train remains one of the most remarkable works on the United States ever made."
(Peter van Agtmael)

"Paul is and will always be in my heart and mind the kind of human being that I think of as the best of what a human can be. A wonderful caring human being who happens to be a photographer. He is the best of us who speak with our respective approaches of capturing the world that we live in for a while."
(Eli Reed)

Fusco worked as a photographer with the United States Army Signal Corps in Korea from 1951 to 1953, before studying photojournalism at Ohio University, where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1957. He moved to New York City and started his career as a staff photographer with Look, where he remained until 1971.

In this role he produced important reportages on social issues in the US, including the plight of destitute miners in Kentucky; Latino ghetto life in New York City; cultural experimentation in California; African-American life in the Mississippi delta; religious proselytizing in the South; and migrant laborers. He also worked in England, Israel, Egypt, Japan, Southeast Asia, Brazil, Chile and Mexico, and made an extended study of the Iron Curtain countries, from northern Finland to Iran.

After Look closed down, Fusco approached Magnum Photos, becoming an associate in 1973 and a full member the following year. His photography has been published widely in major US magazines including Time, Life, Newsweek, the New York Times Magazine, Mother Jones and Psychology Today, as well as in other publications worldwide.

Fusco moved to Mill Valley, California, on July 4th, 1970 to photograph the lives of the oppressed and of those with alternative lifestyles. Among his latest subjects are people living with AIDS in California, homelessness and the welfare system in New York, and the Zapatista uprising in the Mexican state of Chiapas. He has also worked on a long-term project documenting Belarussian children and adults sickened by radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl explosion.

Paul Fusco: 1930 - 2020

On July 10th, a top Turkish court struck down the 1934 cabinet decree that turned Istanbul's Hagia Sophia into a museum. Later that day, Turkish president Erdogan signed a decree allowing the landmark to be used as a mosque.
Built 1,500 years ago as a Christian cathedral, Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest in 1453. 86 years ago, under the Turkish Republic, it became a museum and is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Emin Ozmen visited the site on the day of the announcement and then returned on July 24th to photograph worshipers during the first day of the change.

Turkey Declares Hagia Sophia a...

Kanye West, an American rapper and singer-songwriter, is redesigning his life with fashion and gospel music. His outspokenness and personal life receives significant amounts of media attention due to his frequent controversies at award shows, his social media commentary, his relationship with Donald Trump, as well as his marriage to television personality, Kim Kardashian.
West is transforming from one of the world’s best-selling music artists into an influential fashion designer. The launch of his clothing line, Yeezy, and the start of his weekly “Sunday Service” orchestration are the only beginnings of his rebooted life.
Paolo Pellegrin photographed West during one of his church services and at his studio, for The Wall Street Journal.

Kanye West: Church Leader and Fashion...

The Crimson Line is a return to “the simple black box and the single click”; it is a meditation on the adverse effects of industry and climate change through an exploration of the colors found in the sky during the first minutes of sunrise. Shot in the industrial landscape surrounding the beachside suburb in Adelaide that is Trent Parke’s home, his camera is often trained on the plumes of steam emanating from factory chimneys. Bathed in the intense reds and pinks of the early sun, they appear ominous and alien.

The Crimson Line

On June 8th, the funeral service for martyr George Floyd was conducted in his native Houston, Texas. A widely publicized event, the procession and service was attended by thousands of mourners as well as dignitaries including Rev. Al Sharpton, Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), politicians, actors, and sports figures. Former Vice President and 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden addressed the gathering via video link.

On May 25th, Floyd died in police custody after an arresting Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck for 8 minutes. The incident was recorded on video which was soon posted online. The incident generated instant and widespread response in the US and around the world. Since then, demonstrations have been staged in hundreds of cities around of the world.
This latest surge of activity in the Black Lives Matter movement, is the most widespread to date, and has prompted quick action regarding the review of policing policies and departmental funding in the US.

George Floyd's Funeral

US cities have been bursting with outrage in response to the latest death of a black man from police brutality.
On May 25th, George Floyd died in police custody after an arresting Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck for 8 minutes. The incident was recorded on video which was soon posted online. Initial protests were peaceful but on May 27th, demonstrators lit a Minneapolis police precinct on fire. Since then, peaceful demonstrations have been staged in hundreds of cities around of the world.
This latest surge of activity in the Black Lives Matter movement, is the most widespread to date.

Black Lives Matter

Magnum photographers have been actively documenting the Covid-19 pandemic, some from the isolation of their homes. This album contains a frequently-updated selection of available images.

Coronavirus Coverage by Magnum...

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