Christopher Anderson (b.1970, Canada), a member of
Magnum Photos for over ten years, has covered an innumerable list of political and social issues around the world. Whilst he is widely known for his moving photographs of fleeing Haitian immigrants aboard a sinking handmade boat named 'Believe in God', Anderson has also made pictures of Barack Obama, Al Gore and David Letterman amongst countless other people and places.
Contrary to the often-unforgiving frontiers Anderson places himself in, his photographs are always imbued with palpable emotion. In a society in which a torrent of photographs from the mass media drive an apathetic view of such narratives, Anderson instead offers an alternative, poetic and intimate practice that that speaks of his own experience, whilst constructing a frame for us to experience it with him.
In 2000, Christopher Anderson received the
Robert Capa Gold Medal for his series on the crossing made by boat by Haitian refugees to the United States. He has also been nominated for a
Pulitzer Prize. Anderson has worked for
Newsweek Magazine and
National Geographic Magazine and in 2011 he became the first Photographer in Residence at New York Magazine.
Numerous books have been published on his work:
Nonfiction (2003),
Capitolio (2009), Son (2013),
Stump (2014) and his latest book
Approximate Joy (2018). Anderson lives and works in both New York and Barcelona.
Source: The Ravestijn Gallery
Christopher Anderson is known for his emotionally charged, artfully drawn images that explore themes of truth and subjectivity. He is one of today’s most influential photographers, whose origins began in war reporting and later transformed into something more intimate, blending the worlds of commercial, art and fashion work, but always with a foundation in documentary.
Anderson was born in 1970 in Canada and grew up in west Texas. His photographic career began working for local newspapers. In 2000, on assignment for the
New York Times Magazine , he boarded a small wooden boat with 44 Haitians trying to sail to America. The boat sank in the Caribbean. The photographs received the Robert Capa Gold Medal and marked the beginning of a ten-year period as a contract photographer for
Newsweek Magazine and
National Geographic Magazine. In 2011 he became New York Magazine’s first ever Photographer in Residence; a notable collaboration that would also mark Anderson’s shift into portraiture and fashion, making images of significant figures including Barack Obama, Spike Lee and Debby Harry.
In 2008, after the birth of his first child, Anderson moved further away from journalistic magazine work to subjects more immediate to his personal experience. In 2012, his book, SON, was published, defining a visual direction that has come characterize to his work. Other projects created within this intensely intimate approach include
Capitolio,
Stump and
Approximate JOY.
