A family forced to live in a tent after their home was destroyed during Operation Cast Lead, Israel's 22-day offensive on the Gaza Strip in 2008-2009. Italian photojournalist Paolo Pellegrin is behind some of the most astonishing humanitarian photography of the past three decades, documenting conflicts around the globe. Taken on a Canon EOS 5D Mark II (now succeeded by the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV) with a Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM lens (now succeeded by the Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L II USM) at 1/80 sec, f/3.5 and ISO800. © Paolo Pellegrin/Magnum Photos
Paolo Pellegrin's formative interactions with the photographers he admired were "mute" – a dialogue through the pages of their photo books, which he consumed religiously in his youth. In this new series, Candid Conversations, the world's most experienced and esteemed photographers will connect with today's rising stars, facilitating a sharing of knowledge through the photography community that wasn't available to a young Paolo.
Here, the 10 times World Press Photo award winner and Magnum Photos member joins fellow Canon Ambassador and documentary photographer Ksenia Kuleshova in conversation. One of the most prominent documentary photographers of her generation, Ksenia, like Paolo, has won the W. Eugene Smith Grant. She is known for her work exploring unseen aspects of life in conflict areas, such as her series on Abkhazia, a largely unrecognised state in the South Caucasus that suffered significant damage during the Georgian-Abkhazian war in the 1990s.