'South African Photographs', David Goldblatt

A land, a people and a society through the lens of David Goldblatt.

16 - 04 - 2007

From 1952 David Goldblatt's pictures have documented the multiple realities of South African life, from its people to its cities and landscapes.

Beyond the immediate present there lies a deep awareness - transferred from photographer to viewer - of the history, social structures and balance of power of this unique country.

David Goldblatt won the "Hasselblad Award", the most important international prize for photography, in 2006.

***

For the openDemocracy slideshow of David Goldblatt's "South African photographs" exhibition click here.

The exhibition is currently showing at the Fotomuseum Winterthur in Zurich.

From the series 'The Transported of KwaNdebele – A South African Odyssey', 1989 Travellers from KwaNdebele buying weekly season tickets at ehe PUTCO bus depot in Marabastad, Pretoria, 1983. Gelatin-silver print, 50,8 x 61 cm. © David Goldblatt

From the series 'The Transported of KwaNdebele – A South African Odyssey', 1989 GOING HOME: Some on this bus will reach home at between 9:30 and 10 p.m and rise again the next morning at between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m., 1984. Note in 2006: The cycle still continues. Gelatin-silver print, 50,8 x 61 cm. © David Goldblatt

From the series 'South Africa: The Structure of Things Then', 1998 Speculative development by a property developer in putatively ‘authentic Cape Dutch' style, Agatha, Tzaneen, Transvaal, 10 April 1989. Gelatin-silver print, 40,5 x 50,8 cm. © David Goldblatt

From the series 'Intersections – Municipal Officials' Martin Klaase, mayor of the Kamiesberg Local Municipality in the council chamber at Garies, Northern Cape, 28 June 2004. Digital print on cotton rag paper in pigment inks, 42 x 60 cm. © David Goldblatt

Average rating

(1 vote)

Please support openDemocracy's "Needed: more democracy!" campaign.

We need more of our readers to support the work of helping spread democratic understanding and influence.

If you read openDemocracy and value it please DONATE:

Donate from the UK with Gift Aid

Donate from any other country

Donate via PayPal

Copyright © openDemocracy. Published by openDemocracy Ltd. You may download and print extracts from this article for your own personal and non-commercial use only. For all re-print, syndication and educational use please see read our republishing guidelines or contact us. Some articles on this site are published under different terms. No images on the site or in articles may be re-used without permission unless specifically licensed under Creative Commons.

Comments

rg616 (not verified) said:

Wed, 2009-06-03 15:53

Agreed; you could only understand these images if you understand the culture, context and time they were taken in. I think images in magazines like national geographic completely hide the truth of the africa and disguise it in this rural anchient bushman culture, simply to feed the ego s of the western middle class so that they believe they are still be the most superior. Goldblatt is not cruel, he is truthfull.

reply | email this comment

Post new comment

Quote of the day

Columns

Email & RSS

Who's linking?

Our Authors around the Web

Recent comments

Navigation

oD Twitter Stream

Most discussed this month