Photographer Page

Magnus Wennman

A young boy sleeping with the light on in Sweden. Countries at extreme latitudes—with seasonally long periods of daylight and darkness—can face challenges when it comes to the body's clock.

Resting in his bunk on the U.S.S. Paul Hamilton, a sailor wears light-emitting goggles for a short time after waking. When this photo was published in an August 2018 story about sleep, scientist Nita Shattuck was testing the goggles to see if they could reset sailors' internal clocks.

Until a vaccine is available, the key to avoiding COVID-19 is reducing one’s risk of infection as much as possible. Better sleep can help.

In Sweden hundreds of immigrant children whose families face deportation have contracted resignation syndrome, a baffling disorder in which the child withdraws from the world, won’t react even to painful stimuli, and must be nourished with a feeding tube— sometimes for years. “She is not suffering now,” physician Elisabeth Hultcrantz says of Leyla Ahmed, 10, a Syrian refugee.

Resting in his bunk on the U.S.S. Paul Hamilton, a sailor wears light-emitting goggles for a short time after waking. Nita Shattuck of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, is testing the devices to see if they can reset sailors’ internal clocks, synchronising them with work shifts rather than the sun cycle.

Wile, the seven year-old son of photographer Magnus Wennman, watches cartoons on his iPad— a modern bedtime ritual for some. The stimulation may drive off sleep, but so does the backlit screen: Light at night inhibits the production of melatonin, the hormone that helps regulate our daily biological rhythms.

Uppgivenhetssyndrom, or resignation syndrome, is said to exist only in Sweden, and only among refugees. The patients seem to have lost the will to live. Djeneta has been bedridden and unresponsive for two and a half years and her sister Ibadeta for more than six months. Magnus Wennman's image is nominated for an award in the People Singles category of the WPPh 2018 contest. Taken on a Canon EOS-1D X Mark II with a Canon TS-E 45mm f/2.8 tilt-shift lens.

Mahdi is a year and a half old and has only known war and flight. While he sleeps, hundreds of refugees around him argue with Hungarian police at the border. When he wakes up, the police will assault the refugees with tear gas and water cannons.

Two-year-old Fara left behind her home as well as her true love—soccer. Her father tries to keep her love for the sport alive by crumpling anything he can into a ball.

A bomb destroyed Lamar’s home in Baghdad, but she still remembers her toys. With her family, she crossed the sea from Turkey into Hungary and now sleeps on a blanket in a cold forest.