A vision of urban decay in Johannesburg wins the Deutsche Börse

ARCHITECTURE, AWARDS, DOCUMENTARY
Published on 28 May 2015
A vision of urban decay in
Johannesburg wins the Deutsche
Börse Photography Prize 2015
Written by Tom Seymour
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Patrick Waterhouse (Left) 2014 © Mauro Bedoni. Mikhael Subotzky (Right),
2006 © Guy Tillim. Both courtesy of the artist
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Looking up the Core, Ponte City, Johannesburg, 2008
Ponte City, Johannesburg, 2008
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Doors, Ponte City, 2008-2010
Parking Entrance, Ponte City, 2008
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Untitled 1, Ponte City, Johannesburg, 2008
Untitled 2, Ponte City, Johannesburg, 2008
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Untitled 3, Ponte City, Johannesburg, 2008
Looking up the Core, Ponte City, Johannesburg, 2008
All images © Mikhael Subotzky / Patrick Waterhouse, courtesy the Goodman Gallery
A photography project that reveals, layer by layer, the complex
stories concealed within one of Johannesburg’s most iconic
buildings, Ponte City, has won this year's Deutsche Börse
Photography Prize 2015
Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse were awarded the Deutsche Börse
Photography Prize 2015 at The Photographers’ Gallery this evening, Thursday
28 May 2015.
The £30,000 award was presented by previous prize winners Oliver Chanarin
on behalf of the artist duo Broomberg & Chanarin.
Subotzky and Waterhouse won for their publication Ponte City (Steidl, 2014),
which depicts a 54-floor apartment block in Johannesburg, built in 1976 for a
white elite under apartheid rule.
After the end of Apartheid, it became a refuge for black newcomers to the city
and immigrants from all over Africa, and it came to be seen as the prime
symbol of urban decay in the city – the epicentre of crime, prostitution and
drug dealing.
Subotzky and Waterhouse began their project in 2007 after a failed
regeneration project. Working with remaining residents and using
photographs, architectural plans, archival and historical material, they created
an intimate social portrait of the building’s community of residents. An
accompanying sequence of seventeen booklets containing essays and personal
stories complete the visual and spatial narrative of this Johannesburg
landmark.
Brett Rogers, non-voting Chair of the Jury and Director of The Photographers’
Gallery said: “The jury praised Subotzky and Waterhouse for introducing new
ways of photographic storytelling and presentation in book form. They have
drawn together a rich and diverse array of archival and documentary
approaches, to reveal, layer by layer, the complex stories concealed within one
of Johannesburg’s most iconic buildings, Ponte City.
“This long-term, creatively ambitious project, serves as a compelling
metaphor for South African society as it transitioned from Apartheid to postApartheid era and importantly explores the wider issues relating to the global
migration of peoples today.
Andreas Preuss, Deputy CEO of Deutsche Börse AG said: “The cooperation
between The Photographers’ Gallery and Deutsche Börse since 2005 has
proven very successful – the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize is a
prestigious award, well- established and widely recognised. I’m happy to
announce that Deutsche Börse will continue to support this award also for the
next three years.”
F I L E D U N D E R : Architecture, Awards, Documentary
T A G G E D W I T H : Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, frontpagefeature, Mikhael
Subotzky,Patrick Waterhouse, Ponte City, Ponte City Johannesburg