Featuring: Fransisca Angela, Eric Gyamfi, Yael Martínez, Víctor Zea Díaz and Diego López Calvín
Every two years, communities around the world nominate historic places to World Monument Fund’s Watch program, which connects local heritage preservation efforts to global awareness and action. In 2022, WMF and Magnum Foundation launched a partnership to document eleven of these sites and their significance to local communities. Drawing on Magnum Foundation’s international network of socially engaged photographers, this creative collaboration explores the interconnectedness of people, place, and the transmission of shared histories.
The four projects featured here represent a process of discovery and exploration deeply rooted in community. In Ghana, Eric Gyamfi explores the enduring cultural heritage of the Asante people and their shrines. Fransisca Angela portrays the resilience of the people of Wainyapu Village on Sumba Island, Indonesia, after a devastating fire’s destruction. Victor Zea and Diego López Calvín use long-exposure cameras embedded in the land to capture the landscape and structures that have enabled the residents of the Yanacancha-Huaquis Cultural Landscape, Peru, to control the water supply since pre-Inca times. And Yael Martínez describes his collaged photographs of the ancient Mexican city of Teotihuacan as “an analogy of the layers of time, stones, dust, and structures that have built our present and our identity.”
Together, these projects offer distinct and unexpected ways of understanding the profound resonance of cultural memory in the present.
About the Artists
Fransisca Angela is an Indonesian multidisciplinary artist. Her approach involves communities to create personal narratives around place, memory, and social issues.
Eric Gyamfi is a photographer living and working in Ghana. His work often experiments with the hybrid nature of analog, digital, and chemical photographic processes.
Víctor Zea Díaz is a Cusco-based documentary photographer. His work has been published in National Geographic and The Atlantic, by the BBC, and elsewhere.
Diego López Calvín is a freelance photographer based in Madrid. He is one of the inventors of solarigraphy, which uses pinhole cameras and long exposures to track the movement of the sun.
Yael Martinez is a photographer whose work addresses fractured communities in his native Mexico. His photographs have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, TIME, The New York Times Lens Blog, and elsewhere. He is a member of Magnum Photos.
Organizations
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World Monuments Fund
World Monuments Fund (WMF) is the leading independent organization devoted to safeguarding the world’s most treasured places to enrich people’s lives and build mutual understanding across cultures and communities. Since 1965, our global team of experts has preserved the world’s diverse cultural heritage using the highest international standards at more than 700 sites in 112 countries. With a commitment to the people who bring places to life, WMF embraces the potential of the past to create a more resilient and inclusive society. In 2025, WMF is celebrating 60 years of safeguarding the irreplaceable.
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Magnum Foundation
Magnum Foundation expands creativity and diversity in visual storytelling, activating new audiences and ideas through the innovative use of images. Through grants, mentorship, and creative collaborations, we partner with socially engaged imagemakers exploring new models for storytelling. Since our founding in 2007 by members of the Magnum Photos cooperative, we have made more than 600 direct grants to visual storytellers from over 80 countries. To find out about upcoming exhibitions and events, learn about grant opportunities, or join our community of support, please visit magnumfoundation.org
Heritage in Focus
Featuring: Various Artists
Curated by: Kristen Lubben Tif Ng
Locations
View Location Details Brooklyn Bridge Park – Emily Warren Roebling Plaza1 Water St
Brooklyn, NY 11201
This location is part of Brooklyn Bridge Park
Explore other locations and exhibitions nearby
Heritage in Focus, a collaboration between World Monuments Fund and Magnum Foundation, has been made possible, in part, by support from Nora McNeely Hurley and Manitou Fund; Donna Perret Rosen; Lorna B. Goodman; The Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust; and Monika McLennan.
Explore more here: https://www.wmf.org/partners/magnum-foundation
The views and opinions expressed in this exhibit are those of the exhibition artists and partners and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Photoville or any other participants and partners of the Photoville Festival.
