Close Enough: Magnum Women Photographers on Power, Trust and Observation

December 7, 20253 min read

Is closeness in photography merely a matter of physical distance, or is it about trust, complicity and emotional connection? With the exhibition Close Enough, C/O Berlin brings together works by twelve women photographers from the legendary Magnum Photos agency to put this fundamental question under the lens. The show runs from 27 September 2025 to 28 January 2026 and forms a highlight of C/O Berlin’s 25th-anniversary celebrations.

The title playfully challenges Magnum co-founder Robert Capa’s famous wartime maxim (“If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough”). Here, “close” refers less to physical proximity and far more to the trust and delicate power dynamics between photographer and subject.

Intimacy, Resistance and the Reversed Gaze

The works on display span long-term collaborative projects to social-process observations, featuring artists such as Olivia Arthur, Myriam Boulos, Sabiha Çimen, Susan Meiselas and Newsha Tavakolian.

Myriam Boulos (Lebanon): Documents Beirut’s social upheaval, protests and the aftermath of the 2020 explosion in nocturnal images that read like a visual diary of a city reclaiming itself.
Hannah Price (USA): Turns street harassment (catcalls) into photographic encounters, balancing the ambivalent act between self-empowerment and the desire for recognition.
Cristina de Middel (Spain): Photographs the male clients of sex workers, thereby reversing the power dynamics of the act of looking.
Carolyn Drake (USA): Presents staged photographs that investigate how masculinity is depicted, demanding a re-evaluation of the photographic gaze on the male body from a female perspective.
Sabiha Çimen (Turkey): Explores religious education, marginal living conditions and subcultures.

While addressing themes of otherness, vulnerability and representation, the exhibition sheds light on the contemporary photographic approaches of women who are increasingly shaping Magnum Photos’ visual language.

Curation and Film Programme

Initiated by the participating photographers themselves and originally curated by Charlotte Cotton in collaboration with the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York and Magnum Photos, the Berlin presentation has been adapted and expanded by C/O Berlin curator Boaz Levin.

Audio Guide: In “Listen to the Artists”, the photographers personally explain how they approach their subjects and what “close enough” means to them.
MUBI Film Series: Inspired by the exhibition, MUBI has curated an accompanying film programme featuring works ranging from Chantal Akerman to Lizzie Borden.