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 Fund 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.)
Mendel got his start as a news photographer in the early eighties, documenting the violent resistance to apartheid in South Africa and, later, the country’s first free elections. He eventually began photographing the impact of H.I.V. / AIDS in South Africa, moving away from a documentary practice toward more overtly activist work. Mendel aligned himself with various AIDS-prevention organizations, and his work took on stronger conceptual undertones.
With recognition came criticism; Mendel was accused of being a so-called victimologist who presented his subjects as powerless, nameless people headed for death. He countered this critique by introducing text and short films to his work, literally giving his subjects a voice. In 2001, he published his first monograph, “A Broken Landscape: HIV & AIDS in Africa.” For Mendel’s most recent piece, “Through Positive Eyes,” which he considers the final chapter of his work on H.I.V. / AIDS, he asked people to photograph their own lives—the result is an acutely intimate portrait that further empowers the subjects to combat the stigma surrounding H.I.V.
Mendel’s current work, “Drowning World,” which depicts victims of extreme flooding as a response to climate change, is currently on view at the International Center of Photography’s Picture Windows.
“A Broken Landscape” (2013). All photography and film by Gideon Mendel. Edited by Lara G. Reyne and Mo Stoebe.
The Smith Fund ceremony, which is free and open to the public, will be held at the S.V.A. theatre on Wednesday evening, at 7 P.M.
