South African photographer Jodi Bieber began her professional career covering the 1994 democratic elections in South Africa for The Star Newspaper under chief photographer Ken Oosterbroek, having attended three short courses at David Goldblatt’s Market Photography Workshop in Johannesburg.
In 1996, she was selected to participate in the World Press Masterclass in the Netherlands and this opened the door to a career travelling the world on assignment for international magazines and NGO’s. At the same time, she has always pursued her own long-term personal projects.
Jodi has won numerous international prizes,among them 10 World Press Photo awards, including the overall prize in 2010. She has produced four books, Between Dogs and Wolves – Growing up with South Africa, 2006; Soweto, 2010; Real Beauty, 2014 and Between Darkness and Light, Selected Works: South Africa 1994-2010. The work has been exhibited widely internationally.
Jodi also mentors students, lectures, and holds photographic workshops all over the world.
On the centenary anniversary of women's suffrage in the UK, the Royal Photographic Society named her as one of their Hundred Heroines and her portrait of Bibi Aisha in the top 100 photographs to influenced the previous decade.
On episode 134, Jodi discusses, among other things:
- Her playful lockdown project with husband Francois
- Growing up in South Africa
- Her first break with The Star newspaper
- Adding her voice to her projects
- Her first book, Between Dogs And Wolves
- Collaboration with the people in her pictures
- How she took her World Press winning portrait of Bibi Aisha
- Getting fewer assignments
- Shooting a fashion spread for Dior
- Her portrait project, Quiet
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“Where you aim your camera, how you edit your work, how your publication chooses the images: there isn’t the set truth. And I quite like interpreting things. I quite like adding my voice to my projects. That was important for me.”