Being There

Paul Hansen is one of the world’s leading press photographers, and Sweden’s most decorated. With his virtually unique ability to get close to people and their lives, he has carved out a reputation for classic photo reportage. For the past 20 years, and with Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter as a platform, he has documented many of the world’s flashpoints, with his work always centring on people.

Being There is his first major retrospective. In this book, we get to follow his extensive coverage of the Arab Spring, of Gaza, the West Bank and the “frozen” wars in Ukraine and the Crimea; natural disasters in Haiti, riots in the Congo, political unrest in Lebanon and suffering in Afghanistan; new light is shed on the seemingly intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict. An entire chapter is devoted to people displaced by war and famine.The book contains almost 200 of his absolute best shots.

Hansen also explains what it’s like to work in war and conflict zones. In the autumn of 2016 he was reminded of the risks photographers and journalists are exposed to, when he was shot by a sniper outside of Mosul.