Photo|Frome – Gideon Mendel

Working with both stills and video, Gideon Mendel’s intimate style of image-making and long-term commitment to socially engaged projects has earned international recognition. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1959, he began photographing in the 1980s, during the final years of apartheid. This experience as a ‘struggle photographer’, documenting the brutality of the South African state’s response to peaceful protest, marked him on some level and for much of his subsequent career his focus has been on responding to the key global issues facing his generation.

‘When I’m 40’ is a cross-generational initiative with a group of nine and ten year old children in North Devon providing a unique perspective on our global climate emergency from the viewpoint of the generation who will be most affected. In a series of workshops led by the Beauford team, a group of eighteen local children and their parents explored how rising tides may affect places that they know and love during their lifetimes. The children all created their own placards, questioning what their chosen locations might be like in 2050 when they are grown up.

This project has been supported by the Cultural Development Fund, a sum of money awarded to North Devon Council by Arts Council England, on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.