Guy Tillim wins international Leica Oskar Barnack Award
Reporting on the awarding of this prize to South African Guy Tillim, the Leica website, http://www.leica-camera.com/kultur/events/wettbewerbe/obp/index_e.html says:
'This very coveted international award for outstanding, high-quality reportage photography has been sponsored as part of Leica Cultural Projects since 1979, the year of the 100th anniversary of Oskar Barnack's birthday. The prize is awarded in cooperation with the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie in Arles, France (July 5 to September 18).
'His reportage documents the transformation of the town from an urban enclave of the white minority to an 'African town ' as the photographer puts it. The fast transformation, steered by the municipal and regional authorities, has left its traumatising mark. The emergence of a black and rootless underclass is leading to a new ghetto in Johannesburg, this time of a different kind.
'The photographic search for signs of the transformation is convincing in both form and content: the fragmented view of the demolition and decay of the town's structures and apartments reflects the inwardly torn and lost inhabitants. Guy Tillim approaches his subject gradually - from an outside view through to the intimate observation of details. Apart from successfully documenting local effects of historical processes, the photo essay raises questions about the identity and dignity of the human being. In doing so, it makes an excellent contribution to the theme of the Oskar Barnack competition 'Man and his Environment '.
'Eighty years after the breakthrough of 35mm photography, Tillim shows that, irrespective of all the changes in imaging technology, the key success factors for further development of the photographic medium are just the same as ever: the inquisitiveness of a journalist, persistence and sensitivity as well as the capability to develop an individual visual style.'
The Jo'burg series can be viewed online at http://www.michaelstevenson.com/contemporary/exhibitions/jhb/jhb1.htm
. Tillim last year won the DaimlerChrysler Award for Photography.
