South African artist, Mikhael Subotzky’s priests in Artporn Magazine

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

From "Ponte City" monographs by Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse. Image courtesy of Artporn Magazine

Ponte City dominates the Johannesburg, South Africa skyline. This unavoidable 54-storey apartment building on the Berea ridge has become an icon of the city it towers over. The building has had a chequered history, and Mikhael Subotzky’s film, video and photography, this artist explores the relationship between social storytelling and the formal contingencies of image making. Subotzky’s third monograph, "Ponte City (Steidl, 2014)" is the product of a six-year collaboration with the British artist Patrick Waterhouse. Perceptions of Ponte have always been extreme, its joys and ills exaggerated equally. It has been hailed as the next big thing in urban living and derided as a suicide centre and a rubbish dump.