Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse worked at Ponte City, the iconic Johannesburg apartment building which is Africa’s tallest residential skyscraper, for more than six years. They photographed the residents and documented the building – every door, the view from every window, the image on every television screen. This remarkable body of images is presented here in counterpoint with an extensive archive of found material and historical documents. The visual story is integrated with a sustained sequence of essays and documentary texts. In the essays, some of South Africa’s leading scholars and writers explore Ponte City’s unique place in Johannesburg and in the imagination of its citizens. What emerges is a complex portrait of a place shaped by contending projections, a single, unavoidable building seen as refuge and monstrosity, dreamland and dystopia, a lightning rod for a society’s hopes and fears, and always a beacon to navigate by.
The long-term project obtained the Discovery Award of the 2011 Rencontres d’Arles Photography Festival.
Reviews:
Monopol:
"Das Buch ist eine schöne und raue Dokumentation (...) 'Onte of no return' oder 'The full Ponte' - egal welche Geschichte man über Südafrika erzählen will, hier hat sie stattgefunden."
cphmag
http://cphmag.com
Time Lightbox
http://lightbox.time.com
Collector Daily
http://collectordaily.com
Spiegel online
http://www.spiegel.de
The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com
Die Presse
192 pages
Hardback / Clothbound in a box
23.7 x 36.5 cm
English
ISBN 978-3-86930-750-3
1. Edition 05/2014
Out of print
€ 100.00 incl. VAT
Free shipping
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