FreedomorDeath Format: Hardback

White ‘struggle’ photographers, such as Gideon Mendel, were based in the suburbs but became messengers in a war which would shape the country. The physical photos from this period, reproduced in this book, are battered by time, damage to the film itself and deliberate intervention. The changes to these objects speak of the fragility of memory itself – material trace of the past can be altered just as the human mind with the current of time.

Born in Johannesburg in 1959, Gideon Mendel began his career as a news and ‘struggle’ photographer documenting the final years of apartheid. His work has been widely published in magazines and newspapers including National Geographic, Geo and the Guardian Weekend. Shortlisted for the Prix Pictet in 2015 and 2019, he has also received the Eugene Smith Award for Humanistic Photography, the Amnesty International Media Award, and six World Press awards.