“I love looking out at the trees from my desk…love the light….I like my environment to be visually pleasing….warm with colour…my computer and internet are my gateway to the world and when the internet goes down and I am in my office and slightly off balance…I still need to get the artworks/posters onto the walls.”
After completing three short photographic courses at the The Market Photography, Jodi Bieber worked as a photographer leading up to and during South Africa’s first democratic elections. 1996 was a turning point. She was chosen to participate in the World Press Masterclass held in Holland and started working on assignments for publications like the New York Times Magazine. Over a ten-year period (1994 – 2004) her project focused on the country of her birth, South Africa – photographing youth living on the fringes of South African society. Her most recent book SOWETO was published in partnership with the Goethe Intitut and Jacana Media in May 2010.
FROM YOUR DESKS: What are you working on right on?
JODI BIEBER: I am going to Seattle on assignment on Thursday and towards the 28th I am a tutor on The World Press Masterclass in Amsterdam and towards the end of November I go to Nepal to give a workshop to Nepalese and Finnish photographers. I will start a new project early next year.
FYD: Can you imagine your life without photography?
JB: I can’t imagine my life without photography. It nourishes me and it gives me a platform to express some of the things I feel.