Mother Jones and Magnum Foundation Form Partnership to Showcase World-Class Photojournalism

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

[ Photo © Karen Mirzoyan, Courtesy the Magnum Foundation ]

Mother Jones is proud to announce a partnership with the Magnum Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the production of engaged, independent documentary photography. This month, Mother Jones and the Magnum Foundation’s Emergency Fund (EF) will launch an initiative to feature the work of independent photographers who have been documenting underreported stories around the globe. The Magnum Foundation EF photographers include: Benjamin Lowy, Alex Majoli, Krisanne Johnson, Bruce Gilden, Justin Maxon, and Yuri Kozyrev.

In partnership with EF, Mother Jones will publish 10 photo essays at MotherJones.com or in Mother Jones magazine, reaching a combined audience of 4 million people. Mother Jones' creative director Tim J Luddy describes the new partnership as based on mutual ambition: "What documentary photographers capture in pictures—those fraught human moments in the face of adversity, outrage, or absurdity—is what Mother Jones captures in journalism. Everybody wins with this unprecedented partnership: Photography supported by the Magnum Foundation gains an expanded network with a widely-respected venue and we get to share extraordinary photo essays with our readers."

"In today's media landscape, we need to work together to support photographers committed to doing in-depth reportage on critical issues not covered by today's main headlines," adds Susan Meiselas, acclaimed photographer and president of the Magnum Foundation. "Mother Jones, a publication that continues the important tradition of fearless investigative journalism, is a powerful platform for photography independently produced through the Magnum Foundation."

The first photo essay under the new partnership is Karen Mirzoyan's "Unrecognized Islands of Caucasus," a series that chronicles the transitional state of unrecognized republics in a region torn apart by years of war.

The Magnum Foundation was founded by the photographers of Magnum Photos, the world's premier documentary photography collective, to carry forward in the not-for-profit sphere the values and engagement traditionally associated with Magnum. The Foundation supports a wide range of activities carried out by concerned independent photographers from a variety of agencies.

Renowned for its investigative and narrative reporting, Mother Jones also has a rich legacy of dynamic photojournalism. The magazine was honored with an Award of Excellence for photo editing in this year's Pictures of the Year International competition for Chicago photographer Vivian Maier’s captivating series of street photography, which is also nominated for a Western Publication Association award for best series of editorial photographs.

For more information about the Magnum Foundation-Mother Jones partnership, or to schedule an interview, please contact Elizabeth Gettelman, egettelman@motherjones.com, or Emma Raynes at eraynes@magnumfoundation.org.