Marc Shoul (South Africa):

Flatlands

“I can remember always having a camera with me as a kid when on holiday, shooting friends and occasions. Photography is medium-conveying information, which I am able to use to expose, communicate, engage, understand and learn from the people and situations I seek out. I work mostly in black and white primarily because it relies on mood and composition. I am drawn to different societies, hoping to understand the way people live and adapt to their circumstance, environments and limitations. I am fascinated by peoples’ development in difficult situations and seek to find out what makes them propel themselves and sustain what they have.”

Marc Shoul was born in 1975 in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. He graduated with Honours in photography from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in 1999 and currently lives and works in Johannesburg. He has participated in group exhibitions across South Africa and Europe; was featured in the AGFA Youth International Photojournalism Publication 1999; reached the finals of the Absa L’Atelier 2009; was included in After A at the Report Atri Festival, Italy; and was invited to hold a workshop at the Vevey School of Photography, in 2010.  His solo exhibitions have included Beyond Walmer at the Association of Visual Arts Gallery in Cape Town (2000), Natal Society of Arts, Durban (2001) and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Port Elizabeth (2010), and Flatlands, at the Association of Visual Arts, Cape Town (2009), KZNSA in Durban, (2010) and Galerie Quai 1, Vevey, Switzerland (2010). He has worked for magazines including Colors, Dazed & Confused, De Spiegel, Financial Times Magazine, Monocle, Mother Jones, Smithsonian, Stern, The Telegraph Magazine, Time, Wired and World Health Organization and has shot for many advertising clients and agencies. In 2007 the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Museum added Beyond Walmer to its permanent collection.

Images © Marc Shoul.