RPS Awards Talks... Gideon Mendel and Gareth Evans

In this on-going series of 'in conversations', hear leading individuals talk about how they use photography as artists, scientists, educators, publishers and curators. All our speakers are recent RPS Award recipients who have been recognised for their contribution to the medium. They are discussing their work with those who know them well.

All talks and links to recordings (where available) in the series can be seen here: https://rps.org/awardstalks

Gideon Mendel, RPS Honorary Fellow, in conversation with Gareth Evans.

Image Credit:  Gideon Mendel HonFRPS 'Flood and Fire'

Gideon Mendel’s intimate style
of image-making and long-term commitment to socially engaged projects has earned international recognition. Born in Johannesburg 
in 1959, Mendel began his career as a news and ‘struggle’ photographer documenting the final years of apartheid. This experience marked him deeply, and much of his subsequent work has been engaged with the key political issues facing his generation. In 1991 he moved to London, and continued to respond to global concerns, especially HIV/ AIDS. Since 2007, using stills and video, Mendel has been working on Drowning World, an art and advocacy project about flooding 
that is his personal response to our climate crisis. He has twice been shortlisted for the Prix Pictet (2015 and 2019) and has received the Jackson Pollock Prize for Creativity, the Greenpeace Photo Award, the Eugene Smith Award for Humanistic Photography and the Amnesty International Media Award. His work has been widely published, his images have been used in numerous climate protests and his photographic prints, installations and video pieces are increasingly seen in a variety of gallery and museum contexts. As part of his ongoing practice Mendel continues to focus on our global climate emergency, most recently making work about the element of fire. Along with this he has been developing a variety of new projects addressing the Covid-19 crisis we are all facing..

Gareth Evans is a London-based writer, editor, film and event producer and Whitechapel Gallery’s Adjunct Moving Image Curator. He hosts the LRB Screen at Home programme and has co-curated the Forum of the Future Porto, Estuary, First Light, Flipside and Swedenborg Film Festivals. He commissioned and co-produced the essay films Patience (After Sebald) by Grant Gee (Artevents, 2011), Things (Ben Rivers, FVU, 2014) and World Without End (Jem Cohen, Estuary, 2016). He has programmed major retrospectives of the films of Jem Cohen, Mike Dibb, Xiaolu Guo, Alexander Kluge, Chris Marker, Jonathan Meades and Laura Mulvey & Peter Wollen, alongside numerous film / event seasons and festivals across the UK.

The 'in conversation' will be followed by a public Q+A. Questions will be taken by Zoom chat or can be emailed in advance. Your Zoom link will be sent in PDF with your booking confirmation. 

All talks and links to recordings (where available) in the series can be seen here: https://rps.org/awardstalks