Quote: "For me, photography has become a way of attempting to make sense of the very strange world that I see around me. I don't ever expect to achieve that understanding, but the fact that I am trying comforts me"
　

Mikhael Subotzky

Mikhael Subotzky, 25, was born in Cape Town, South Africa. He has worked as a photographer since graduating from the University of Cape Town in 2004. His final-year university project, entitled Die Vier Hoeke (The Four Corners), consisted of an in-depth study of the South African prison system. It has received widespread acclaim both in South Africa and internationally, winning the 2007 Young Photographers Award at Perpignan, The 2007 KLM Paul Huf Award, The Special Jurors Award at the 2005 VIes Recontres Africaines de la Photographie in Bamako and the 2006 F25 Award for Concerned Photography.

In 2005, Subotzky extended his focus on the criminal justice system by running photographic workshops with prisoners and photographing ex-prisoners in a series entitled Umjiegwana (The Outside). His latest project, focusing on the small Karoo Desert town of Beaufort West, will be exhibited in Cape Town, Amsterdam and Verona later this year.

Subotzky has held solo exhibitions inside Pollsmoor Prison (2005), at the Goodman Gallery (2006), at Constitution Hill (2006) and at Goodman Gallery Cape (2007). His work has also been exhibited in Basel, Miami, Bamako, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Turin, Verona, Canary Islands, Rome, Verona, Paris, London and New York. His prints are held in the permanent collections of the South African National Gallery (Cape Town), The Johannesburg Art Gallery, and the Museum of Modern Art (New York).