https://foundation.app/@magnumphotos/mpa75/35

In his book, The Last Testament, Magnum photographer Jonas Bendiksen chronicles seven men who all publicly claim to be the biblical Messiah returned. Some have thousands of followers; others only a handful of disciples. All are united in the faith that they themselves are the Chosen One and have come to save the world. In his own words, the Magnum photographer explains what the project means to him.

I started photographing The Last Testament exactly three years ago. But my urge to somehow use photography to explore faith has been growing in me for much longer than that.

I’ve always been interested in reading the Bible and other religious texts. Faith has always been a bit of a mystery to me, one that I’ve always found fascinating to explore. And one needs only open any newspaper on any given day to see the power and influence of faith in our society.*

I didn’t go into this in a normal journalistic way, confronting the Messiahs with critical questions, or seeking to test their claims. I was much more interested in taking everything I was told and shown at face value, to see what the world looked like from their vantage point.

Everything interested me. Everything from what makes someone make these claims and what does it take to make others believe it, to what their favorite meal is. These men are all very different, and so are their communities. In some cases we became very close. In Moses of South Africa’s case (pictured in the NFT), we shared the same bed for a week. In other cases, they were more distant, more like an oracle one could only visit by appointment.

To find out more about Jonas Bendiksen’s The Last Testament, check out the full article here.

To find out more about Jonas Bendiksen, click here

https://foundation.app/@magnumphotos/mpa75/35

In his book, The Last Testament, Magnum photographer Jonas Bendiksen chronicles seven men who all publicly claim to be the biblical Messiah returned. Some have thousands of followers; others only a handful of disciples. All are united in the faith that they themselves are the Chosen One and have come to save the world. In his own words, the Magnum photographer explains what the project means to him.

I started photographing The Last Testament exactly three years ago. But my urge to somehow use photography to explore faith has been growing in me for much longer than that.

I’ve always been interested in reading the Bible and other religious texts. Faith has always been a bit of a mystery to me, one that I’ve always found fascinating to explore. And one needs only open any newspaper on any given day to see the power and influence of faith in our society.*

I didn’t go into this in a normal journalistic way, confronting the Messiahs with critical questions, or seeking to test their claims. I was much more interested in taking everything I was told and shown at face value, to see what the world looked like from their vantage point.

Everything interested me. Everything from what makes someone make these claims and what does it take to make others believe it, to what their favorite meal is. These men are all very different, and so are their communities. In some cases we became very close. In Moses of South Africa’s case (pictured in the NFT), we shared the same bed for a week. In other cases, they were more distant, more like an oracle one could only visit by appointment.

To find out more about Jonas Bendiksen’s The Last Testament, check out the full article here.

To find out more about Jonas Bendiksen, click here