ZAM congratulates Mikhail Subotzky (1981, South Africa) and Patrick Waterhouse (1981, UK) on winning the prestigious 2015 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. A six year journey into Johannesburg's 54 stories landmark building Ponte City resulted in a book (Steidl Publishers) and exhibitions from Paris to Lubumbashi and from Edinburgh to Cape Town.
Subotzky started his career as a photographer in post-apartheid South Africa. His work reflects the multiple complexities of a society in transit. ‘Ponte’ is a microcosm of construction and decay, hope and fear, movement and paralysis. Built in 1976 exclusively for a white elite, the tower has changed colour and is home to numerous African communities.
Other contenders for this year’s award were Zanele Muholi (South Africa), Viviane Sassen (The Netherlands) and Nikolai Bakharev (Russia).
