Gideon Mendel is a world-renowned photographer, artist and activist. His 40 years of socially engaged photographic practice amount to a profound act of witnessing. His partisan projects are made with the intention to be of use, to both record the world we live in, and also to change it.
He began his career as a traditional documentary photographer, but driven by the imperatives of the issues he confronts his work has consistently evolved.
He has never been content to stay wedded to one photographic genre. Throughout his career he has been pushing at the limits of photographic practice, challenging himself and his audience to breach boundaries and expectations.
With compassion and visual ingenuity, he has captured the human experience behind some of the most significant issues facing his generation; from the struggle against apartheid in South Africa to the tragedy and hope of HIV/AIDS through to climate change.
For the last 19 years with his Drowning World and Burning World projects he has been developing a deeply personal yet methodical approach to documenting our global climate crisis, illustrating how its impacts transcend boundaries of wealth, class, ethnicity and geography.
Amongst many awards, Mendel has received the Jackson Pollock Prize for Creativity, the Eugene Smith Award for Humanistic Photography, the Greenpeace Photo Award, the Amnesty International Media Award and six World Press awards. He has been shortlisted twice for the Prix Pictet (2015 and 2019) and the Oscar Barnack Award (2017 and 2025).
Hear from Gideon at Summit Photo 2026
Gideon will be speaking at Summit Photo 2026 on Saturday 18 July to the title Out of Ash.
Gideon Mendel will discuss his immersive video practice and showcase his new three channel film, ASH, (21m,10s, 2026) created with his footage from the aftermath of the Los Angeles fires, 2025.
Best known as a photographer, in recent years Mendel has been developing a uniquely personal filmic language to address the key environmental challenges of our times, to counteract a more conventional photojournalistic approach to climate catastrophe, and to consider ways in which to both contemplate the urgency of climate engagement and consider our capacities for change and action.
Mendel will discuss his process and practice – his moving beyond conventional documentary approaches to engender empathy and create a truly visceral experience for his audiences – and reflect on the research and methods that inform his video and installation works.
