Mikhael Subotzky


Mikhael Subotzky is a South African artist based in Johannesburg. His installation, film, video and photographic work have been exhibited widely in museums and galleries, and received awards including the KLM Paul Huf Award, W. Eugene Smith Grant, Oskar Barnack Award and the Discovery Award at Rencontres d'Arles. He has published the books Beaufort West, Retinal Shift and, with Patrick Waterhouse, Ponte City. Subotzky is a member of Magnum Photos.

Life and work

Subotzky graduated from the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town in 2004.
For his book Beaufort West, Subotzky photographed in and around a prison built within a traffic circle in the town of Beaufort West.
For six years he and Patrick Waterhouse collaborated in photographing in Ponte City, a 54-storey cylindrical building in Johannesburg – the tallest residential tower block in Africa – resulting in their book and exhibition Ponte City. They photographed the residents, interiors and exteriors of the building, and produced a series of giant tableaux, made up of hundreds of contact sheets, presented in towering light boxes. Their book Ponte City won the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2015.
Subotzky became a Magnum Photos nominee in 2007 and a full member in 2011.

Publications