Gideon Mendel

Gideon Mendel is a London based South African photographer. He was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1959. He graduated with a degree in Psychology and African Economic history from the University of Cape Town. In 1990, he moved to London, where he currently resides. While his occupation is photography, he is known for using his photography for activist purposes and aims to give individual people a voice. He is also known for photographing the topic of HIV/AIDS, which he has been actively doing since 1993.[1]

Before moving to London, he photographed the “change and conflict in South Africa in the lead up to Nelson Mandela's release from prison, working with Agence France-Presse, and as a correspondent of Magnum Photos."[2] Mendel has won many prestigious photography awards, specifically six World Press photo awards. In 1996, he won the Eugene Smith Award for Humanistic Photography for his work on AIDS in Africa. He has also won the Amnesty International Media Award. He is a part of the group Network Photographers in London.

Career

Mendel has worked for the following publications: National Geographic, Fortune, Condé Naste Traveller, GEO, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Guardian Weekend Magazine, L'Express and Stern magazine.[3]

Projects

Mendel has also worked on many significant photography projects, in Africa and around the world. "He has produced a number of pioneering photographic projects working with charities and campaigning organizations, such as The Global Fund, MSF, Treatment Action Campaign, The International HIV/AIDS Alliance, Action Aid, The Terrene Higgins Trust, Shelter, Leonard Cheshire Disability, UNICEF and Concern International.”

Drowning World

Drowning World was an exhibition shown at East Wing Galleries at Somerset House from 10 May to 5 June 2012. It comments on the phenomenon of climate change through photography. It particularly emphasises individual experiences by depicting victims and giving each of them a specific voice. This project spans flood victims all over the world and the photos come from the following countries: the United Kingdom, India, Haiti, Pakistan, Australia, and Thailand. Mendel states the following when commenting on this project as a whole: "I have chosen to focus on these extreme circumstances as a way of responding to the threat of climate change."[4] Along with the showing of the project at East Wing Galleries, he was given press for the fact that he used the popular photography app, Instagram to share pictures taken in flood- ridden areas of Nigeria, specifically the state of Baelsya and the community of Igbogeni.[4]

Through Positive Eyes

Through Positive Eyes is a project done by Mendel based around photographing experiences with HIV/AIDS epidemic. It is described as "a global photographic collaboration with Gideon Mendel and the UCLA Art & Global Health Center."[5] It explicitly aims to give "photographic voice to people living with HIV in major cities around the world." The project has taken placed in Mexico City in August 2008, Rio de Janeiro in June 2009 and Johannesburg in March 2010. However, this project remains relevant in South Africa and Africa in general, as Mendel has been chronicling HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa since 1993. Mendel states the following about the project "This is a project which I have been involved with for a long time. I believe the website deserves to be seen by a much wider audience. The interactive web presentation is premised on the belief that HIV positive people should pick up their own cameras and make their own statements. I am one of the directors of the project, and I am very proud of it. However the challenge is to get it seen outside of the HIV/AIDS and NGO world."[6]

Kingsmead Eyes Speak

In this project, Mendel documented 28 children in a primary school in London for a week and then allowed the children to document their own lives. He used old Retroflex cameras to make a portrait of every single child in the school. The school is extremely diverse while being low income and Mendel documented this diversity in this project.[7]

3EyesOn

Kingsmead Eyes Speak is associated with a larger project, titled 3EyesOn, "which is dedicated to finding innovative ways of working with young children, often from poor communities in the UK, to photograph their own lives."[3] In this project, Mendel works with Crispin Hughes. This project works with students from less fortunate communities in the UK and uses photography as a way to teach these students and allow the students to respond to their lives. They typically "engage with a class for one week." The projects accomplished include Kingsmead Eyes Speak, and work done at each of the following schools: Lanthom Primary, St. Aiden's Primary and Kingsmead Primary.[8]

Kenyan Voices

This project continues to emphasise Mendel's fascination and activism in the HIV/AIDS world. In this project, Mendel travelled to Kenya to question young people, specifically asking them the question of what HIV/AIDS means to them individually. He made a series of short films focusing on this topic. Gideon Mendel's website stated the following: the films “provide insight into the stigma and hardship they face, as well as the hope they carry forward. Each starts with a still image that makes a startling transition to video that explores their environment and reveals something beyond the photograph.”[9]

A Broken Landscape: HIV and AIDS in Africa

Mendel wrote the monograph, A Broken Landscape, in 2001, which tells the stories of people with HIV/AIDS in Africa through both text and photo. It captures Mendel’s 16 years of documenting the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The book is summarised as follows: "Three-quarters of the world's 36 million people living with HIV/AIDS are in Africa, south of the Sahara. These stories and photos depict what the epidemic means to some of the individuals, families, and communities whose lives it has transformed. Every photograph represents an act of courage, and every individual featured takes a stand for AIDS understanding and prevention. The personal testimonies from Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe reveal hope and love in the face of an illness that is ravaging a continent."[10] Noerine Kaleeba and Reverend Gideon Byamugisha also contributed to the book.

‘A Broken Landscape' was also done as an exhibit in the South African National Gallery in Cape Town. Mr. Justice Edwin Cameron of the Supreme Court of Appeal in South Africa describes the exhibit as "a remarkable event…Its presence here represents a major commitment by the South African National Gallery to people living with HIV and AIDS." Cameron continues to describe the exhibit as fighting against denial of the disease and emphasising the search for truth. He also commends Gideon for involving himself "with the extremity of his subjects' struggle, who are at the very edge of life. He shows us the inexpressible complexity, the terrible simplicity, and the dignity of that state."[11] Thus, through photography, Mendel is able to fight against stereotypes of AIDS, and simply depict the reality of the epidemic.

We Are All Living Here

This project also reflects Mendel's interest in HIV/AIDS and the community associated with this. Mendel's website describes it as "A long-term project project that documents the intimate lives of five individuals, all living with HIV, who are receiving life-saving antiretroviral medication in the Lusikisiki district (a remote, rural part of South Africa)."[12]

Living With Aids

This was a feature article for National Geographic done in September 2005. This article and connecting interactive online spread, also tells stories about the Lusikisiki district in the Eastern Cape. Lusikisiki differs from other areas in South Africa in that "nearly 800 people in Lusikisiki have been treated with antiretroviral (ARV) drugs." These drugs have allowed the people of Lusikisiki to change their view of AIDS from a "killer" to a "manageable chronic illness."[13]

Voices From the Border

In this project, "Mendel photographs Chirundu, a transit point on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. Chirundu is a HIV/Aids transmission hotspot, with 350 sex workers out of a population of 4,000 catering for the hundreds of drivers who spend days or even weeks waiting for customs clearance."[14]

The Children Left Behind

This project is based in Mozambique, specifically the Beira Corridor. In this project, Mendel made portraits of AIDS orphans and those who care for them.[15]

Eight Women One Voice

This is a project done in collaboration with Action Aid. In this project, Mendel "profiles eight women whose lives have been profoundly affected by some of the key issues the G8 (eight men from the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia) has the power to control- HIV/Aids treatment, water privatisation, debt, the free market."[16]

References

  1. ↑ Mendel, Gideon. "Biography".
  2. ↑ "Gideon Mendel". SAHistory.org. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Gideon Mendel". World Press Photo.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Coomes, Phil. "Drowning world by Gideon Mendel". Retrieved 6 May 2013.
  5. ↑ Mendel, Gideon. "Through Positive Eyes". Retrieved 8 May 2013.
  6. ↑ "Gideon Mendel". Photostories: Where photography meets multimedia storytelling.
  7. ↑ Kingsmead Primary School. "Kingsmead Eyes Speak". Retrieved 8 May 2013.
  8. ↑ Crispin Hughes. "3EyesOn". Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  9. ↑ "Kenyan Voices".
  10. ↑ Mendel, Gideon (2003). A Broken Landscape: HIV and AIDS in Africa. Blume. ISBN 8495939118.
  11. ↑ Cameron, Edwin (2003). "A Broken Landscape". The Southern African Journal of HIV Medicine: 1–2.
  12. ↑ Mendel, Gideon. "We are All Living Here".
  13. ↑ Mendel, Gideon. "Living With Aids". Retrieved 8 May 2013.
  14. ↑ Mendel, Gideon. "A Deadly Cargo". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
  15. ↑ Mendel, Gideon. "Gideon Mendel in Mozambique: The Children Left Behind". The Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
  16. ↑ Mendel, Gideon. "Eight Women One Voice". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 May 2013.

Sources

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