Jacana media invites you to the launch of the book “Soweto” by Jodi Bieber on 27th May at 18h30; The Shack, 8069 Baqwa Street, Orlando West, Soweto. About the book: Acclaimed home-grown photographer Jodi Bieber has created an open-ended essay which is a celebration and a portrait of life in Soweto today.
The importance of Soweto in the collective consciousness is hard to overstate. It registers as a place born of resistance, perhaps even embodying the South African struggle for freedom.
But the birth of Kwaito is attributed to Soweto too. And beyond the grand narratives, there is, and always was, a proliferation of dancing, art and fashion in this place defined by its energy and cosmopolitan nature. Labelling and unlabelling, claiming and discarding, Sowetans have created Soweto anew – a phenomenon that is celebrated in this photographic publication which contemplates daily lived realities, where here, as elsewhere, South Africans are continually reinventing themselves and their urban space.
Jodi Bieber’s instinctive wandering throughout Soweto, and her astonishing yet careful study of the people, the place and the time, offers us an opportunity to reflect on the mystery of this changing space.
Jodi Bieber is the winner of the Prix de le l’Union Européenne at the Rencontres de Bamako, Biennale Africaine de la Photographie, November 2009. She has won eight World Press awards, a 1st Place in Picture of the Year International 2009 and numerous other accolades. Her first book, Between Dogs and Wolves: Growing up in South Africa, was released in five countries in 2006.
Her work continues to be exhibited internationally
Bieber has lectured at the London College of Communication (UK), Westminister University (UK), ICP School of Photojournalism (USA) and Photo Espane. Her relationship with the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg, South Africa continues.
Bieber has worked on assignments for, among others, the New York Times (USA), Geo (Germany) and The Sunday Times Magazine (UK). She also works for non-profit organisations like Médecins Sans Frontiè;res on special projects for booklets and exhibitions.
She is represented by the Goodman Gallery in South Africa and the Institute for Artist Management, based in Los Angeles, New York and London.
ISBN: 978-1-77009-806-0
Format: Paperback
Size: 246 x 194mm
Pages: 160pp
Price: R225.00
Published by Jacana Media in association with the Goethe-Institut South Africa in May 2010
