An Uncertain Winter, which won him the Magnum IdeasTap Photographic Award, was my first encounter with Marco Kesseler. The photoessay chronicles citizens of Belarus, “the last dictatorship in Europe”. Directly and indirectly he shares with the audience the subversion of free speech across the nation. Visually it’s a beautiful series, with a deep ominous aura throughout. One solemn shot shows Valery Shankin, a veteran and human rights activist, whose own opposition party was dismantled in the rise of an autocratic power, holding his military uniform in a subdued stance against dwindling light. It’s implication on the older generation of democratic campaigners being fairly obvious, however, juxtaposed next to it is a photograph depicting a child of a displaced family ambitiously climbing the furniture, atop a piano whilst wielding a book. Again the implication is fairly clear, there is hope in the next generation.