Magnum Live Lab 2019 Moscow

Watch: Three Visions of Moscow
Magnum Live Lab is an international project, in which photojournalists of the legendary Magnum Photos are taking pictures and familiarizing themselves with a city during two weeks and then are publicly discussing their photos and preparing exhibits for the final showcase.
The July 2019 iteration of the Live Lab saw three photographers with renowned – and uterly distinct – approaches to photographing cities: Gueorgui Pinkhassov (the Russian member of Magnum Photos, currently residing in France), Mark Power (UK), and Alex Webb (USA) – working in the Russian capital.
The summer session of the laboratory was closed by a photo exhibition, which was held in the Schusev State Museum of Architecture from the 16th of July to the 1st of September. Here, visitors could see 121 best pictures taken by photographers from Magnum Photos, who worked in the Russian capital in winter and summer.
A short film exploring the approaches the photographers took to capturing the essence of Moscow’s ‘hectic reality’.
Moscow willingly blossomed, opening up and letting the three photographers observe its inner nature from a variety of angles. The city revealed its remarkable nocturnal palette for Mark Power, with Alex Webb capturing it at a “certain evening hour”, and finally allowing Gueorgui Pinkhassov to capture the uncatchable: the essence of urban light and shadow.
Power’s project, NOCTAMBULIST, saw him wondering the streets of Moscow nocturnally, only creating work between sunset and sunrise using his large-format camera – mounted on a heavy tripod. Power’s Moscow appears surreal, ephemeral. It is sometimes sinister, but always beautiful.
Webb re-read Bulgakov’s tale of the devil visiting the decidedly aetheist Moscow of the 1930s – The Master and Margarita – before arriving in the city, fully immersing himself in the atmosphere of the metropolis. Moscow, with its dynamic rhythm, forced Webb to plunge himself into some unusual shooting conditions, forcing him into making quick, emotional photographs. “I don’t always hunt for a photo, sometimes the photo itself finds me”, he says of the process of his shooting.
Pinkhassov photographed his hometown in his usual manner – working with light and color, playing with reflections and shadows and creating outstanding compositions and cleverly captured moments. Guided by his own contradictory rule: “If you want to get closer, try to moving away”.
These photographers worked in utterly different ways to unpackage the heart and soul of Moscow.