He lived in Russia for several years. The time he spent there resulted in his book, Satellites - Photographs from the Fringes of the former Soviet Union, about separatist republics in the
former USSR, published in 2006.
For three years he photographed slum communities in Nairobi in Kenya, Mumbai in India, Jakarta in Indonesia, and Caracas in Venezuela, for The Places We Live, a book published in 2008, and an exhibition containing projections and voice recordings.
Bendiksen became a
Magnum Photos nominee in 2004 and a member in 2008. In 2010 he was its president.[3]
The Last Testament (2017) follows seven men around the world who claim to be the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
In 2021, in The Book of Veles, Bendiksen departed from the photojournalism practice by creating a conceptual work about "fake news" which consisted of images that were "faked" using CGI to place humans and bears in scenes that Bendiksen had photographed devoid of life, mixed with excerpts from
The Book of Veles (a forged ancient text), and AI-generated texts. The deception, initially not disclosed, escaped detection from his colleagues at Magnum and then curators and audiences at the Visa Pour l'Image festival, until Bendiksen revealed it on the Magnum Photos website.[4] It questioned the ability of the most visually literate people in the photography industry to tell real photos from faked ones[5]
Personal life
As of 2022[update], Bendiksen lives with his wife and three children near Oslo.[2]
2013: Award of Excellence, Feature Story Editing - Magazine category, Seventieth Pictures of the Year International Competition,
Pictures of the Year International with Elizabeth Krist and Elaine Bradley, for "Russian Summer" in National Geographic.[14]
2014: First place, Sports Story Editing category, Pictures of the Year International, with Elizabeth Krist and Elaine Bradley, for "On the Trail with the First Skiers" in National Geographic.[15]
2014: Award of Excellence, Sports Picture Story category, Pictures of the Year International, for "The Last of the First Skiers".[16]
^"Magnum Photos: New Blood". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 23 March 2014. Photographic cooperative Magnum is celebrating its 60th anniversary with an exhibition across two venues that brings together the work of five Associate Members: Antoine D'Agata, Jonas Bendiksen, Trent Parke, Mark Power and Alec Soth.
^McFarlane, Robert (21 August 2007).
"Magnum uncorks champagne moments". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 23 March 2014. New Blood at Stills Gallery features Soth and four other new members of Magnum Photos, including Trent Parke, the first Australian invited to join the agency.