Every now and then, there is a photographer who becomes the apple of the public’s eye and, since mid-2012, Jerome Sessini is shaping up to be the perfect candidate. The French photographer was even selected as a nominee to join Magnum Photo, a cooperative that, ‘is a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually.’

What makes the cooperative special, is that it is one of the first and only to be owned and administered entirely by its members. Jerome Sessini caught the attention of Magnum Photo last year and joined them as a nominee in July. Later, in 2012, Sessini’s 4-year documentation of the war between drug cartels in Mexico ‘The Wrong Side’ was published, gaining the attention and respect of his peers and highlighting his talent to a more global platform.

Images from ‘The Wrong Side’ can be found in the gallery above, along with images from his other projects.

This year, he won 3rd prize at The 2013 World Press Photo Multimedia Contest for his on going work in Syria, documenting the current situation that the country sits in. Whether this project is going to go forth and lead to a long-term project like ‘The Wrong Side’ did, we don’t know. What we do know is that Sessini’s documentation of these landmark events as they happen, will provide a key insight into what happened for years to come and is something that is very important to the photographer, saying ‘what’s going on right now will have a ripple effect beyond the country’s own borders. 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’.

Jerome Sessini, whose career properly got underway in 1998 when he reported from Kosovo for Gamma photo agency, has been acknowledged internationally and his worked has been displayed in solo exhibitions. He’s praised for his approach to photography, rejecting idealism and otherworldliness, opting for a wavering balance of cynical realism and ‘in your face’ reportage.

You can keep track of his activity via Magnum Photo’s blog, here.

Credits - All Images © Jerome Sessini / Magnum Photos.