The last addition to the Magnum photographers pool is Paolo Pellegrin, member since 2005. He is from Italy like me, that’s why I’m particularly carried by his work, which I find superb. In this video you have a glimpse of his photojournalism.
Paolo Pellegrin makes powerful, strong images. His black and white is incomplete, flawed by blur, out of focus subjects, broken frames and disorder. His strong themes make his images distressing and disorientating. His contrasts insinuate an aura of mystery.
You have to look at Pellegrin’s images carefully to discover the detail in the shadows. Intimidating shadows where suffering, starvation, filth, mutilations, blood and death hide. In his own words:
I’m more interested in a photography that is ‘unfinished’ – a photography that is suggestive and can trigger a conversation or dialogue. There are pictures that are closed, finished, to which there is no way in.
Paolo Pellegrin has published various photo books. Among them I suggest you Dies Irae, which is a collection of his most powerful work.
