Last year was an important one for French photographer Jérôme Sessini. In October, Contrasto published his book, The Wrong Side, a four-year documentation of the war between drug cartels in Mexico – from Culiacan to Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez. In November he came back from Syria with some of the most visceral and heart-wrenching images made of the country’s descent into fully fledged civil war. But, most significantly, in July he joined Magnum Photos as a nominee.

Even so, he’s not resting on his laurels; in fact, he says joining Magnum has encouraged him to do more with the career he kickstarted in 1998 in Kosovo. “A photographer always has doubts about his work and career; I know I’m always searching for the right path,” he says. “I think Magnum is confirmation that I’m going in the right direction. It pushes me to do more. In a sense, it’s a new starting point.”

Joining Magnum also brings him new freedom, he says, adding: “I used to work with agencies where I didn’t really feel my photography interested anyone. I think that was because I wasn’t in the right structure. At Magnum the members all have different approaches to photography, and that can be very beneficial. It will influence my work. That doesn’t mean I’m going to change the way I work, but it will enrich what I do.”

Sessini’s work documents landmark events that will shape entire countries or regions for years to come – in Syria, for example, “what’s going on right now will have a ripple effect beyond the country’s own borders” – but he still photographs what’s going on through the prism of a news photographer. He needs “to report on the news as it happens, not before or after”, he says, adding: “If I choose to follow it up with a more in-depth body of work, like I did in Mexico, it has to come from a personal need. But, in all cases, if I didn’t cover the main event – the starting point – my work wouldn’t be complete.”

Image © Jerome Sessini / Magnum Photos.

This year Sessini plans to continue his work in Syria, although he’s not sure yet whether it will lead to a long-term project like The Wrong Side. He is confident he’ll be back in Mexico, though – the country in which he’s spent much of the past four years – but says this time his work won’t focus on the violence that has engulfed the country, “even though it permeates everything”. “Instead, I’m thinking about something different, and I don’t think it will be a pure photojournalistic body of work,” he says. “Instead, it will be more photographic.”

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