Saman, who was born in Lima, Peru, grew up in Spain before relocating to the US to study Communications and Sociology. He started his photographic career in 2000 as a staff photographer for New York Newsday, reporting from the Middle-East, Afghanistan and Iraq among many other countries. In 2007, Saman received a World Press Photo award for his coverage of the presidential elections in Haiti.

Up until last week, Saman was represented by Panos Pictures. He had been selected as one of the 20 photographers from the London-based agency to take part in the Panos Profile experiment designed to "help them shape some of their longer-term projects."

Nahr, who has made a name for himself reporting from Congo and Central Africa, used to belong to the Oeil Public photo agency before it shut down earlier this year. The agency used to represent photographers such as Karim Ben Khelifa, Samuel Bollendorff, Philippe Brault, Guillaume Herbaut, Johann Rousselot, Jerome Sessini and Michael Zumstein.

Nahr, who was raised in Hong Kong, became a freelance photographer in 2007 working for magazines such as Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, Time, Le Monde 2, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Sunday Telegraph and National Geographic among many others. His photographs have also appeared in PDN, British Journal for Photography and Magenta’s Flash Forward.

He was selected for Visa Pour l'Image in Perpignan in 2009, where he showed Road to Nowhere, a series on Congo. At the photojournalism festival, Nahr spoke with BJP's news editor Olivier Laurent, claiming that photojournalism was "alive and well". Read the full interview here.

In February 2010, Nahr, who is based in Nairobi, Kenya, joined Reportage by Getty Images. However, Getty now confirms to BJP that it is no longer representing the young photographer.

The two additions to Magnum Photos bring to 81 the number of represented photographers - dead and alive - for the prestigious agency. Nahr and Saman were selected as nominees at Magnum's annual general meeting held in New York.

Photographers, before becoming full members, must have been invited as nominees by the agency. They usually spend two years under that status before being able to apply for associateship for another two years, on average. Only then can they become members of the celebrated agency.

At the AGM, Magnum also promoted Chris Anderson to full member status, while Jacob Aue Sobol became an associate.

For more information, visit magnumphotos.com.