Whether it’s an image of a Nigerian woman striding to a Sunday morning church service through calf-high floodwater or an imp...

Whether it’s an image of a Nigerian woman striding to a Sunday morning church service through calf-high floodwater or an impassive protestor marching for Nelson Mandela in 1985, facing down whip-wielding police, Gideon Mendel’s (@gideonmendel) photographs transmit urgency and elegance. “I try to take beautiful pictures that say something. I’ve always tried to make work that has some kind of impact in the world,” says the 57-year-old activist and self-taught photographer. “I grew up as a white South African in the darkest days of the apartheid. I think I grew up feeling guilty and powerless.” Now based in London and dad to Eli, a budding photographer with political activist aspirations, Gideon is focused on his long-term commitments to social issues, having covered HIV/AIDS for 18 years and worked on his climate change project, Drowning World, for nine. “I don’t let go of my subjects very easily,” he says.
Photo by @gideonmendel