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When are you actually close enough?
The renowned Magnum photo agency has gathered the work of a dozen female photographers at C/O Berlin for visitors to explore intimacy and judge for themselves how close the camera should be to the subject.
The exhibition was originally show at New York’s International Center of Photography in 2022 to mark the agency’s 75th anniversary.
“It is an important exhibition for us because it shows the changes that the agency has undergone over the decades,” explains Andrea Holzherr, curator for Magnum Photos.
“We evolve with the times by bringing young photographers into the agency every year”, adds Holzherr.
Bedroom portraits
There was no deliberate decision to expand Magnum’s portfolio of women photographers. It’s been a natural development as more women have chosen to capture life from behind a camera. One of them is Iranian photographer Newsha Tavakolian.
“We used to talk to each other for hours,” says Tavakolian about a series of portraits she took in her own bedroom. She invited her neighbours in front of the camera and sometimes had to do a bit of persuading.
“We wanted to understand each other and then find common ground. And then they sort of gave me permission to portray them.” Tavakolian’s work is known for her powerful storytelling and her ability to capture human emotion.
She was the youngest photographer to cover the student uprising in Tehran in 1999. She began working for the Iranian women’s newspaper Zan at the age of 16.
Tavakolian wants to both seize and stop time with her portraits. With a photograph, “you freeze time,” she tells Euronews Culture. “Then viewers can spend as much time as they want looking at the picture.”
“Now everyone has this tool in their hands,” Tavakolian continues referring to the camera in mobile phones. “It’s no longer about being privileged or not. It’s about what you have to say.”
With her portrait series, she conveys a snapshot, but also the state of a society. Tavakolian has received numerous awards, including the Carmignac Gestion Award and the Prince Claus Award.
Politics, society, contemporary history – what makes photography special these days?
“It’s about people all over the world, in their communities. It’s about politics, society and contemporary history,” says curator Andrea Holzherr. “We can’t tell that story with our mobile phone pictures.”
For the 25th anniversary of C/O Berlin, the exhibition will be presented in Berlin in an adapted and expanded version. A central theme running through the works in the exhibition is the examination of the relationship between photographers and their subjects.
Inspired by a famous quote from Magnum co-founder Robert Capa – “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough” – the exhibition title also questions his observation.
The exhibition Close Enough is on at C/O Berlin until 28 January 2026.