Updates from Magnum’s 78th Annual General Meeting
The five-day meeting, which took place online at the end of June, saw the voting in of one new full Member of the cooperative, and one Associate
On Wednesday, June 25, Magnum photographers, estate representatives, and staff began the 78th Annual General Meeting (AGM), an event that has taken place every year since the cooperative’s founding in 1947. Usually based in one of Magnum’s three home cities — New York, Paris, or London — this was the second time in its history that the events unfolded online, allowing participants to join virtually from around the world.
The AGM is traditionally a moment to reflect on the past year and exchange ideas on business, priorities and strategy for the future, led by the cooperative’s president. Cristina de Middel stepped down as Magnum President after a three-year tenure, and Marina Fusco of the Paul Fusco Estate became Chair of the Board, with Alec Soth, Lorenzo Meloni, and Gregory Halpern becoming the agency’s Co-Presidents during the course of the AGM.
“Each AGM is a reminder of Magnum’s strength as a collective,” the Magnum Board communicated following the meeting. “Even when we meet virtually, the energy, reflection, and sense of purpose remain just as strong. This year marked not only a leadership transition but also a reaffirmation of the cooperative’s values and evolving vision.”
A key item on the agenda every year is the voting in of new Members for the cooperative, adhering to the process in which photographers must pass from Nominee to Associate to full Member, which takes a minimum of four years. Each photographer must submit a new portfolio for each of the stages, and photographer Members vote on each round during the AGM.
This year, Zied Ben Romdhane becomes the newest full Member of Magnum Photos. Born in Tunisia in 1981, Ben Romdhane discovered photography at the age of 17 while working at his uncle’s portrait studio in El Kef, a town northwest of the country. “At that time, I observed the entire process — from shooting to developing and printing photos — and it sparked my curiosity about how everything worked technically,” he remembers. “So, during my first year at university, with my very first scholarship payment, I bought my first reflex camera and decided to start learning more about photography on my own.”
Self-taught, Ben Romdhane began his career as a commercial photographer, before switching to documentary photography in 2011. In 2018, his debut photobook West of Life was published by Red Hook Editions. The work is described as a testimony to the people and harshness of Gafsa, a phosphate mining region in southwest Tunisia, where the living conditions are nearly inhabitable due to the harsh landscape. One year after publishing the book, Ben Romdhane became a Magnum Nominee.
Ben Romdhane states that he was first introduced to Magnum via the Arab Documentary Photography Program, a collaborative initiative from the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture and Magnum Foundation, created to provide support and mentorship to photographers from across the Arab region. In 2024, his ongoing series The Escape, a dream-like coming-of-age series around the general malaise of Tunisia’s youth, won the Long-Term Projects category for the Africa region in the World Press Photo Contest. Currently based between Canada and Tunisia, Ben Romdhane is in the final stages of shooting the series, and aims to publish his second photobook in the coming years.
“Zied brings an essential voice to Magnum,” said Magnum Board Co-President Alec Soth on this year’s voting. “His commitment to long-form storytelling and his ability to navigate the poetic and political make him a powerful addition to the cooperative.”
In addition to Ben Romdhane becoming a full Member, Myriam Boulos moves from Nominee to Associate. Born in Lebanon in 1992, Boulos is currently based in Beirut. She graduated from the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts in 2015 with a Master’s degree in photography. In 2020, she co-founded the bilingual magazine Al Hayya, becoming its photo editor. The publication focuses on literary and visual content on the “works, interests and strife of women” in the Arab world.
Boulos’ debut photobook, What’s Ours was published by Aperture in 2023, and was awarded the W. Eugene Smith Fellowship. Beginning in 2019 with the revolution in Lebanon, the book traces themes of tumult and protest, love and pleasure through Boulos’ images, featuring her friends and family over the years, and narrated in both Arabic and English with extracts from her diary. In 2027, Boulos can submit a portfolio to become a full Member of Magnum Photos.
The decision was made by the cooperative earlier this year not to open applications for new Nominees in 2025, following the addition of Sudanese photographer Salih Basheer and Palestinian-Dutch photographer Sakir Khader as Nominees in 2024. “Future calls will be announced through our weekly newsletter and Instagram, and will provide prospective candidates with sufficient time to prepare their portfolios,” reads a statement issued by the Magnum Board in May 2025.
The next Annual General Meeting is expected to be held in the last week of June 2026.
