Photojournalist and regular AP contributor Peter Dench interviews multi-award winning photographer Gideon Mendel about his career, and his acclaimed long-term projects on climate change, Drowning World and Burning World.
Gideon, who won AP’s Power of Photography award at the 2024 Amateur Photographer Awards, was born in South Africa and began his photographic career in 1984 documenting the struggle against Apartheid. In 2001 he published his first book, A Broken Landscape: HIV and AIDS in Africa. Now based in London, for the last 16 years his focus has been on capturing the human experience and physical impacts of climate change, with his Drowning World and Burning World projects. Gideon’s work is frequently exhibited in galleries, museums, and photo festivals, including on the Greenpeace stage at the 2023 Glastonbury Festival. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Greenpeace Photo Award, the Amnesty International Media Award and six World Press Photo Awards.
