“The invitation is just a formality, as the photography family has always shared  a house — a house that is busy, and in constant renovation. As a family, we are  now, once again, looking at the future with more questions than answers.”  

Vital Signs is the third and final part of the Then. Now. Next. triptych, organized  as part of the agency’s 75th-anniversary celebrations, which began last May with  a series of events and shows around the theme ‘In Dialogue.’ Having already  reflected on the past and raised questions about the present, this new curation is  a look to the future — a musing on the hopes, fears, and anticipation of things to  come.  

And it is no surprise that in the final of the agency’s triptych, many of the selected  images focus on the next generation. Lindokuhle Sobekwa, the inaugural  recipient of the major John Kobal Foundation Fellowship, selects an image of a  young boy from Johannesburg taking a break in the fields. Even with his eyes  closed, we feel him dreaming up at the sky. Sabiha Çimen chooses an image  from her award-winning first photobook, Hafiz, of students from a girls-only  Quran school on a funfair ride. A plane flies so low over their heads, that it seems  almost within their reach.  

“Photographers have built the visual chronology of who we were and who we are  today. For who we will be, the journey ahead is one that we are not ready to do  alone. It will be a long road, and for that, we need as many skilled and diverse  travelers as we can get,” De Middel concludes.