A powerful outdoor exhibition in London reflects on the manifold ways the climate emergency is affecting communities across the world—and how we can visualize these urgent stories of devastation
A powerful outdoor exhibition in London reflects on the manifold ways the climate emergency is affecting communities across the world—and how we can visualize these urgent stories of devastation.
In 1990, Gideon Mendel left a box of negatives in his friend’s garage in South Africa. Now, 30 years later, the damaged negatives are reincarnated in a photobook
In 1990, Gideon Mendel left a box of negatives in his friend’s garage in South Africa. Now, 30 years later, the damaged negatives are reincarnated in a photobook
It feels as if our relationship with the idea of home is changing. Across the world, nationalism finds itself dancing freely with far-right politics, while political divisions have chopped families right down the middle, transforming previously tight-kni
‘Home’ is both a physical and imagined space – a state and place of belonging. In our annual celebration of visual storytelling, join us as we spotlight the photographers capturing it in all of its wildly different guises.
‘Since 2007 I have visited six countries (The UK, India, Haiti, Pakistan, Australia and Thailand) that have been devastated by massive flooding. I have done this as an attempt to visually address the issue of climate change.
South African photog Gideon Mendel has won the inaugural Pollock Prize for Creativity. He has spent the last 9 years capturing the impact of climate change.
The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, which safeguards the artistic legacies of Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, initiated the Pollock Prize to support outstanding mid-career artists working in painting, sculpture, works on paper and printmaking, or photography.
His portraits seem to reflect a deep intimacy despite his having met most of his subjects only moments before. He often works with a fixer, or assistant, who helps him communicate with local people and carry gear. And he continues to shoot 120mm film, despite, he says, other photographers telling him he’s crazy.
Seventeen years ago, the South African photographer Gideon Mendel, then thirty-seven, received the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for his work on H.I.V. and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. Tomorrow night is the thirty-fourth annual Smith Grant ceremony, at which Mendel will reflect on his body of work and present the new short film “A Broken Landscape,” an eloquent synthesis of his impressive career. (Note: the film contains some graphic images.)
Gideon Mendel doesn’t have a Facebook account. He “never really found a voice on Twitter” and his website doesn’t have a bio. But his use of Instagram to cover the Nigerian floods that were being largely overlooked by (American) media has been brilliant.
“‘Instagram, it seems, is a medium that is often used in a frivolous way,’ posits Mendel. ‘I wondered if I could use it in a way that is completely serious.’”
Gideon Mendel, along with David Gere, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, created a participatory photography project that encourages people who are H.I.V. positive to tell their stories. Over the last four years, they have put cameras in the hands of 72 people living with H.I.V. in six cities across the globe.
