About
This collaboration between Magnum Photos and Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) developed out of encounters that occurred in the midst of crises, whether in the world’s most remote places or locations that garner plenty of attention from cameras and the international media. They involved Magnum photographers who travelled to Lebanon in 1976 during the civil war and met MSF teams working in Beirut. At other times and in other places, they involved MSF doctors who went to the Afghan province of Nuristan after seeing Raymond Depardon’s April 1979 photojournalism reports in Paris Match. These humanitarian workers and photojournalists shared more than an ethical position—they were driven by a commitment, they believed in working independently, and they wanted to be there to see and hear the reality of the conflicts, epidemics, and natural disasters so that they could transmit what the victims of those events saw and heard.
Ethiopia, 1983
© Chris Steele-Perkins / Magnum PhotosTo commemorate the 50th anniversary of MSF, these two organizations—Magnum Photos and MSF—have decided to look back over five decades and examine the difficult objective of providing assistance and bearing witness through the photos and words of those who experienced or witnessed these events. The events include past crises, based on images drawn from Magnum’s archives, and current ones, as seen by photographers who set off on reporting trips this year.
From the war in Biafra—the event that led to MSF’s founding—to the daily lives of refugees in Greece or Kenya today, these are, above all, human stories. For 50 years, humanitarian aid workers and photojournalists have continued, each in their own way, to stand with the people who suffer the consequences of crises. Photographers and humanitarian aid workers witness the difficulties that communities face and the strength they show as they work to achieve some sense of normalcy and rebuild a shared future. That is the meaning of “solidarity”—to be there and stand against silence and indifference.
"Bringing medical aid to people in distress is an attempt to defend them against what is aggressive to them as human beings. Humanitarian action is more than simple generosity, simple charity. It aims to build spaces of normalcy in the midst of what is profoundly abnormal. More than offering material assistance, we aim to enable individuals to regain their rights and dignity as human beings. As an independent volunteer association, we are committed to bringing direct medical aid to people in need. But we act not in a vacuum, and we speak not into the wind, but with a clear intent to assist, to provoke change, or to reveal injustice. Our action and our voice are acts of indignation, a refusal to accept an active or passive assault on the other."
Witnesses, a unique book
Collectively, we probed our archives and our memories. And as the world is constantly on the move, we have also documented current crises through the images of photographers who have gone on assignment in recent months. Thus, for each date, for each significant event, international event, health disaster, turning point in history, there is a report. The texts respond to the photos and vice versa; they enrich each other. A historical book, made of our common experiences. A unique book to revisit the last fifty years, until today.
Witnesses, the book
Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is an international non-governmental medical organization founded in 1971 that provides emergency assistance to populations facing crises that threaten their survival.
Magnum Photos is a world-renowned photography cooperative that represents some of the most remarkable and unique voices in contemporary photography and that has documented every major international event since the 1930s.
Any question ? Contact us : 50years.GVA@geneva.msf.org