Heritage in Focus is a collaboration between World Monuments Fund and Magnum Foundation to work with local photographers in capturing historic places and their stewards. Photographers were invited to document 11 of the sites from the 2022 World Monuments Watch.
A selection of works from the partnership will debut at Paris Photo from November 7 to 10, 2024, showcasing works by Fransisca Angela, Eric Gyamfi, Yael Martínez, and Víctor Zea Diaz & Diego López Calvín. Skira will publish a catalog of these works, edited by former National Geographic Photo Editor Elizabeth Krist, and will be available in English and French across several countries in October. Additionally, each project will be featured in a series of online exhibits on Google Arts & Culture, curated by the artists, to be released later this year. The first of the series from Víctor Zea Diaz & Diego López Calvín can be viewed here.
For more information, read the full press announcement of Heritage in Focus at Paris Photo here.
Explore works by select photographers below:
Soumya Sankar Bose and Tiretta Bazaar, India
Soumya Sankar Bose is a Kolkata-based photographer who plans to document the architecture, culture, and language of India's oldest Chinatown while also looking at the discrimination the neighborhood’s residents face today.
Victor Zea and the Yanacancha-Huaquis Cultural Landscape
Victor Zea Diaz is a Cusco-based documentary photographer who plans to create portraits of the families in the villages of this Peruvian cultural landscape, where residents are reviving ancient water management infrastructure and techniques to foster climate resilience.
Elsie Haddad and the Heritage Buildings of Beirut, Lebanon
Elsie Haddad is a Beirut-based photographer combining mapping, photography, and soundscapes to create a portrait of her city following an explosion at the port that claimed hundreds of lives and dealt a major blow to the historic center.
Tace Stevens and the Kinchela Aboriginal Boys Training Home, Australia
Tace Stevens is a Noongar and Spinifex photographer and filmmaker who will be working with the Survivors of a state-run institution that imprisoned hundreds of Indigenous boys between 1924 and 1970 as part of Australia’s policy of forced assimilation.
Prasiit Sthapit and Shristi Shrestha and the Hitis of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
Prasiit Sthapit and Shristi Shrestha are Kathmandu-based collaborators who are documenting traditional and often elaborately carved fountains that have long served as crucial sources of water for communities in Nepal.
Tahila Moss and Garcia Pasture, USA
Tahila Moss, whose work touches on themes of matriarchy, indigeneity, and the natural world, hopes to explore these topics while documenting the lifeways and political actions of the Esto’k Gna people around the sacred Tribal site of Garcia Pasture.
Heritage in Focus has been made possible, in part, by support from Nora McNeely Hurley and Manitou Fund; Donna Perret Rosen; Lorna B. Goodman; The Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust; and Monika McLennan.
Cover image: (c) Yael Martinez. Mexico. Teotihuacan. Pyramid of the sun. March 21 2023. The archaeological zone of Teotihuacan has become one of the destinations with the largest number of hot air balloons, generating a great economic impact. Intervened photography.