Earlier this year, photographer Stuart Franklin travelled to Egypt and Morocco, inspired by the North African journey made by Magnum founder George Rodger, 60 years previously across the Sahara Desert. In the spirit of Rodger, Franklin viewed the landscape through his geographer’s eye, comparing the natural and honed stone he encountered in the monumental landscape. Temples of Stone, exhibited here for the first time, is part of the Magnum Retold, a 70th anniversary project, celebrating the agency’s powerful legacy of documentary storytelling.
George Rodger embarked on his journey across the Sahara with his wife, Jinx Rodger, in 1957 and covered 4000 miles in 90 days. The resulting photographs offered a rare insight into the landscapes and inhabitants of what was one of the world’s most remote and unexplored terrains. Franklin’s contemporary journey reflects on Rodger’s travels, recording, once more, a world of both human and natural forms, chiselled and weathered in the harsh desert terrain. Franklin’s vision is a tribute to the original work of Rodger.
Temples of Stone was created as part of Magnum Retold, a new series in celebration of Magnum Photos’ 70th anniversary; current Magnum photographers have been asked to identify an archival photo-story that inspired them and use it as a starting point for their own contemporary story.
Read more at www.leicastore-mayfair.co.uk and www.magnumphotos.com
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Leica Studio Mayfair
27 Bruton Place, London, W1J 6NQ, UK
January 17, 2018 to February 16, 2018
