About the Author

Gideon Mendel is widely regarded as one of the world's leading contemporary photographers. Born in Johannesburg in 1959, he studied psychology and African history at the University of Cape Town. Following his studies he became a freelance photographer and was one of the young generation of struggle photographers documenting change and conflict in South Africa in the lead-up to Nelson Mandela's release from prison.

In 1990 he moved to London, from where he has focussed on social issues globally. He first began photographing the topic of AIDS in Africa in 1993 and in the past sixteen years his ground-breaking work on this issue has been widely recognized. His intimate style of committed photojournalism, whether in black and white or in colour, has earned him international acclaim. He has won six World Press Photo Awards, first prize in the American Pictures of the Year competition, a POY Canon Photo Essayist Award, the Eugene Smith Award for Humanistic Photography and the Amnesty International Media Award for Photojournalism.