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Gideon Mendel
Gideon Mendel (born 31 August 1959) is a South African photographer, based in London. His work engages with contemporary social issues of global concern. It was his work as a 'struggle photographer' during the final years of apartheid in the 1980s that first brought attention to his work.
Born in Johannesburg in 1959, Mendel studied psychology and African history at the University of Cape Town. He began photographing in the 1980s during the final years of apartheid and produced a number of bodies of work documenting the resultant societal conditions and political climate in South Africa.
In the early 1990s he moved to London, from where he has continued to respond to social issues experienced globally. He travels extensively in order to do so, which is reflected by his images focusing on people and societies from countries all over the world. Most of his projects are developed over long periods of time. Video has increasingly become a part if his practice, and he also employs collaborative photography as a means of interacting with his subjects.
Mendel has worked for National Geographic, Fortune, Geo, The Independent magazine, The Guardian Weekend magazine, The Sunday Times magazine, Condé Nast Traveler, L'Express, Stern and Rolling Stone.
His first book, A Broken Landscape: HIV & AIDS in Africa, was published in 2001. Since then he has produced a number of photographic advocacy projects, working with charities and campaigning organizations including The Global Fund, Médecins Sans Frontières, Treatment Action Campaign, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, ActionAid, the Terrence Higgins Trust, Shelter, Leonard Cheshire Disability, UNICEF and Concern Worldwide.
Since 2007, Mendel has been working on Drowning World, an art and advocacy project about flooding. Shortlisted for the Prix Pictet prize, it is his personal response to climate change.
Mendel started the project after travelling to the UK, and then India to document the damage caused by floods a few weeks apart from each other. He was struck by the "contrasting effects of the flooding, and the shared vulnerability of their victims". He describes the project as "my attempt to explore the effects of climate change in an intimate way, taking us beyond faceless statistics and into the individual experiences of its victims." Since beginning the project, he has documented flood damage and the impact of people living in areas affected by floods in countries including Haiti, Pakistan, Australia, Thailand, Nigeria, Germany and the Philippines.
Central to the narrative of the work are the submerged portraits. The subjects' flooded homes are often used as locations, creating a disconcertingly altered environment. The full body of work consists of these portraits, as well as two further series. Flood Lines documents the impact of floodwaters of interior spaces, and Water Marks records the changes left by flood waters left on personal photographs of the victims, which Mendel photographs and collects.
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Gideon Mendel
Gideon Mendel (born 31 August 1959) is a South African photographer, based in London. His work engages with contemporary social issues of global concern. It was his work as a 'struggle photographer' during the final years of apartheid in the 1980s that first brought attention to his work.
Born in Johannesburg in 1959, Mendel studied psychology and African history at the University of Cape Town. He began photographing in the 1980s during the final years of apartheid and produced a number of bodies of work documenting the resultant societal conditions and political climate in South Africa.
In the early 1990s he moved to London, from where he has continued to respond to social issues experienced globally. He travels extensively in order to do so, which is reflected by his images focusing on people and societies from countries all over the world. Most of his projects are developed over long periods of time. Video has increasingly become a part if his practice, and he also employs collaborative photography as a means of interacting with his subjects.
Mendel has worked for National Geographic, Fortune, Geo, The Independent magazine, The Guardian Weekend magazine, The Sunday Times magazine, Condé Nast Traveler, L'Express, Stern and Rolling Stone.
His first book, A Broken Landscape: HIV & AIDS in Africa, was published in 2001. Since then he has produced a number of photographic advocacy projects, working with charities and campaigning organizations including The Global Fund, Médecins Sans Frontières, Treatment Action Campaign, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, ActionAid, the Terrence Higgins Trust, Shelter, Leonard Cheshire Disability, UNICEF and Concern Worldwide.
Since 2007, Mendel has been working on Drowning World, an art and advocacy project about flooding. Shortlisted for the Prix Pictet prize, it is his personal response to climate change.
Mendel started the project after travelling to the UK, and then India to document the damage caused by floods a few weeks apart from each other. He was struck by the "contrasting effects of the flooding, and the shared vulnerability of their victims". He describes the project as "my attempt to explore the effects of climate change in an intimate way, taking us beyond faceless statistics and into the individual experiences of its victims." Since beginning the project, he has documented flood damage and the impact of people living in areas affected by floods in countries including Haiti, Pakistan, Australia, Thailand, Nigeria, Germany and the Philippines.
Central to the narrative of the work are the submerged portraits. The subjects' flooded homes are often used as locations, creating a disconcertingly altered environment. The full body of work consists of these portraits, as well as two further series. Flood Lines documents the impact of floodwaters of interior spaces, and Water Marks records the changes left by flood waters left on personal photographs of the victims, which Mendel photographs and collects.