Mikhael Subotzky - Beaufort West / Retinal Shift - 2008

2 books by Mikhael Subotzky :

- Beaufort West (2008)
At the half-way point along South Africa’s great highway – the N1 running from Cape Town to Johannesburg – lies the small town of Beaufort West. With its prison in the middle of town, on an island in the highway, it’s a surreal road-stop that offers everything a traveller might want – food, gas, a place to stay, an hour of sex... Mikhael Subotzky considers the town, its vivid characters and poignant social landscapes, in a photo essay that confronts central issues of contemporary South African society. His first photobook, it is exquisitely produced on a large portfolio scale. With an introduction by leading South African writer Jonny Steinberg and Subotzky’s own commentary on the photographs, the book is both a document of social evidence and the visual manifesto of the best of the new wave of South African art photographers.
The book is published to coincide with Subotzky’s first North American exhibition – Beaufort West at the Museum of Modern Art, opening in September 2008.

Retinal Shift (2012)
"For me, photography has become a way of making sense of the world. I do not expect to achieve that understanding, but the fact that I am trying to comforts me. "Mikhael Subotzky

Mikhael Subotzky was born in Cape Town in 1981. He became the youngest member of the prestigious Magnum agency aged just 31 and was recently named winner of the 2012 Standard Bank Young Artist Award.

Subotzky was influenced by his uncle, Gideon Mendel, one of South Africa's notable 'struggle photographers'. Subotzky adopts the directness of the social documentary mode while questioning the photographic medium itself.

Retinal Shift is a first retrospective of Subotzky's work. He investigates the practice and mechanics of the subject - in relation to the history of Grahamstown, the history of photographic devices, and Subotzky's own history as an artist. The book fuses his compelling and sometimes brutal photography with essays and archived portraits from the last century to create an intricate and esoteric collection.

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