We, like all living beings, are inherently free. But social and historical factor, as well as environmental constraints, change the way we relate to it. Many people perceive freedom as a simple word they just take for granted; others as a deep, philosophical idea they long for their whole life. Someone has fought for it and found a new life in it, while others are still fighting for it or lost their lives pursuing it. Over the course of history, freedom has always been the underlying, common thread of humanity’s development and the lack of it, with the consequent quest for it, sparked some of the most significant events.

Freedom through Magnum’s photographs

In modern history, 1968 with the escalation of social conflicts around the world represented a turning point for many of the freedoms we light-heartedly enjoy nowadays – from the freedom of thought and expression, to the political, religion and sexual freedom. Fifty years on, the internationally renowned photo agency Magnum Photos has decided to explore the definition of freedom through its photographers’ classic and contemporary works. Embodied either by students, women, black people, children or prisoners, the sense of freedom permeates Magnum photographers’ images, both in their personal approaches and in the subjects they document.

Alabama, USA, 1965.

'From 1961 to 1965, I bore witness to various demonstrations in the civil rights movement. In this photograph, a group of civil rights demonstrators march from Selma to Montgomery to fight for the right to vote. Freedom was then, as it remains today, something that had to be fought for' © Bruce Davidson/Magnum Photos

Students hurling objects at the police. Boulevard Saint-Germain, 6th arrondissement, Paris, France. May 6, 1968.

'There was an urgency to communicate, to speak with one another, to question everything; it was the rebellion of a generation against that which society had prepared for it, against all that came from above' © Bruno Barbey/Magnum Photos

Arizona, USA, 1980.

'Total freedom seems to me to be tubing on the salt river. Floating down a river in a lorry wheel inner-tube, embellished with a floating picnic. Soaking in the sun and showing off one's, probably, burnt body' © David Hurn/Magnum Photos

Venice Beach Rock Festival. California, USA. 1968 © Dennis Stock/Magnum Photos

Doud, age 11. Wolfsburg, Germany. 2017. 'It was night when Doud boarded a small rubber boat. It was his first time seeing the ocean, and now he was amongst a group of refugees, escaping their homes in search of freedom elsewhere. Doud didn't know how to swim and feared the boat would sink. A year later, now in Germany, he is with a handful of other refugees learning to swim as a way of overcoming their fear of water associated with the journey they made to Europe. When I look at this image, I see the trauma that accompanied Doud's sacrifice. It's a constant duality for me: there's no freedom without that risk' © Diana Markosian/Magnum Photos

Children run in the wheat field and enjoy nice weather during the local traditional spring festival. Kirklareli, Turkey. 2017. 'The cold winter leaves the Thrace region of Turkey and welcomes spring with its shining sun and warm winds. People connect again to nature by celebrating it every year during the first week of May in Kirklareli. When I shot this photo, I was running in the wheat field and enjoying the nice weather, remembering my childhood memories with these kids. For them, as for me, it was a moment of pure freedom' © Emin Özmen/Magnum Photos

Boy on a swing. Tirana, Albania. 2005.

'During the 90s, when the communist regime collapsed, and for the years that followed, many families from northern villages and small towns migrated to the suburbs for a better life. When you are an immigrant you feel that nothing belongs to you. Your freedom to dream and to imagine is the only thing you have. Photography is the only freedom I have' © Enri Canaj/Magnum Photos

Handcuffed black people arrested for being in a white Area illegally. South Africa. Circa 1965.

'When I say that people can be fired or arrested or abused or whipped or banished for trifles, I am not describing the exceptional case for the sake of being inflammatory. The essential cruelty of the situation is not that all blacks are virtuous and all whites villainous, but that the whites are conditioned not to see anything wrong in the injustices they impose on their black neighbors' © Ernest Cole/Magnum Photos

Child with a flag in the field. Bagheria, Sicily, Italy, 2002.

'Freedom means to run behind one's dreams' © Ferdinando Scianna

What freedom looks like through Magnum Photos’ lens, the most iconic images

Diritti — di Camilla Soldati

On the 50th anniversary of 1968, a year of social and political unrest, the international photo agency Magnum explores the meaning of freedom through the classic and contemporary works of its photographers.