In 2022, World Monuments Fund (WMF) and Magnum Foundation announced the creation of a partnership to support local photographers around the world in creatively telling the stories of some of the sites on the 2022 World Monuments Watch. We had the opportunity to talk to this year’s 12 grantees as they prepared to embark on their work. The interviews collected here have been edited for clarity and length; read on to find out more about their backgrounds, their work, and their plans for documenting the sites.
Soumya Sankar Bose and Tiretta Bazaar, India
Soumya 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 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 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 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 and Shristi 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 Mintz and Garcia Pasture, USA
Tahila, 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.