Biography
Gideon Mendel is a world wide known photographer, who is recognized for his contemporary photographs focusing and engaging his work on social issues which are of global concern. His is a committed photographer to taking an intimate style of photography, which shows his long term commitment to his love of photography and the projects that he emerges himself in. He has completed an enormous amount of social issues project around the world many which have earned him international recognition and many awards, including the Pollock prize for creativity.
The self motivated photographer was born in Johannesburg in 1959 and studied psychology and African history, so therefore not always showing the greatest interest in photograph from a young age. However he did began to take photographs around the 1980’s where his work as a ‘struggle photographer’ where first brought to the attention. After this he moved around and continued to photograph global social issues and one of his most notable being his project into HIV/AIDs, which had a very hard hitting impact of general public because it was showing true harshness of society in struggling countries. His photo taken began in Africa and expanded to many different locations around the world capturing stories of hardship and global social issues which have made his photographs so famous and popular today.
In 2007, he began his project ‘ the drowning world’ photographing flooding in an emotional and personal project responding the the current situation of climate change. He has been recognised for his unusual portraits and awarded for his creativity and different strategies he takes to produce his story telling images. Following his extensive career capturing global social issues he has worked with many organisations such as National geographic, fortune and the guardian etc.this emphasises the vast amount of work he has done on this topic and shows that he is a professional reliable photographer, which is truthful to the images he captures.
Four stories of hunger is an incredible short film produce by Mendel which shows video clips and images from some of his projects. this short film that he created adds depth and reality to his images and brings more of a story and excitement to the images which often captivates the audience more, and this is one of the aspects which made Mendel stand out as a photographer that inspired me and that i wanted to analyse and have influence in my project which i am conducting in Africa. I was inspired by his passion and long term commitment for photographing social issues and believe that the work that want to capture whilst i am in Burkina Faso shows strong links to the work of Mendel. I personally really like the contemporary style of photography that he uses to capture his images, from the way that he conducts his portraits getting an individual to stand infront of a plain wall can often be difficult and even more so if they speak a different language. Therefore i appreciate his images as they seem as though they are simplistic images however getting to the stage where that image can be taken with the right lighting and position of the camera takes skill and experience.
Image Analysis
The first thing which noticeable when analysing Gideon Mendel work is that he has a project title for all of his shoots which immediately tell you about what the images are of and also where they are taken, meaning in which part of the world and the specific social issue which is being targeted. Without even seeing the image above i already new that the project was focused on in africa and that the project title was ‘Disability Reframed’. From this i started to pick out what he was gong to be capturing in his images and you can assume that it was going to be focusing on how the third world deal and cope with disability. therefore when you click onto the project mendel gives you information about the project, often statistics and background information to the story the project is telling. I think that this is the feature which makes Mendels work stand out from other photojournalist as he is putting raw facts and information behind his images, emphasising that these images are truthful and are telling the stories of global social issues.
The image is of a young girl with some form of disability. She is standing in the middle of the shot therefore making her the focal point of the image. The photograph has no significant distracting background from the image so all focus is on this little girl and wht er story may be. The image breaks the rule of thirds following Mendels contemporary approach to photography and breaks the rule of thirds through the way that the young girl is placed perfectly in the center of the image with an even amount of gap above and below her head. this contemporary form of photographing portraits creates a sense of unusuality which may be a connotation for the fact that he is photographing children with disability which is seen as unique. The series of photos sees every child photographed together in the same way and this could emphasis a sense of community or belonging as they are all photographed in the same way the images are portraying equality which these children may not be used to experiencing because they do not get the same schooling opportunities as other children. Another element of the photograph that i noticed is the angle that the image is taking the photo at. The straight on camera shot that Mendal uses could also be used to portray equality as they are at the same level, the camera is level with the subjects eye.
The background of the image although being plain, is extremely important in the image as it makes the subject stand out more against the background. the neutral colours could also be signifying the simpleness of third world countries lives. And the the use of bold vibrant colored clothing gives a personality and a sense of life to the individual. each portrait in the project the individuals have different coloured clothing and i think that is what signify there individuality and uniqueness. Framing is also a key aspect to this image as the background frames the young girl making her the center point of the image, this is a technique which i am going to use when i am in Africa taking similar portrait images showing the stories of their community. I thin that if i use Mendel’s technique of photographing against a plain wall then the personality of the individual and their story will be the main focus of the image and this will show contrast to maybe other more environmental portraits which i will capture.
The image below is a good example however of how much variation Mendel includes throughout all of his different projects. This portrait although very similar in the stance of the subject and the use of the bright coloured clothing that emphasises their individuality has a very different element to it. Th background of the portrait below shows blurred out the woman’s house. This begins to tell a deeper story of who the individual is. For example in the image below i can pick out that this woman may be a house wife, who stays in the home most of the day looking after the children. Therefore this is a different approach to documentary portraiture which i would also like to explore more and have a go at in my own personal investigation.
By researching all the different projects which mendel has thrown himself into with his love of photography i feel extremely inspired to take some of his ideas and techniques of portraying stories of family and community through social issues and use it to influence my own style of photography and capture images similar. Main points that i want to take away from looking at mendel,is the idea of producing a short film to advertise, or show a deeper story to the images that i will be taking, after my research i am considering the types of video clips that i want to capture whilst im away as well as how i can link in interviews with the local community to show there story and what family means to them.