David Goldblatt

David Goldblatt, The Docrats bedroom, Pageview, Johannesburg, 1976, 60 x 60 cm, silver gelatin print
David Goldblatt, Drum majorette, Cup Final, Orlando Stadium, Soweto, Johannesburg, 1972, 60 x 60 cm, silver gelatin print
David Goldblatt, Shop assistant, Orlando West, 1972, 60 x 60 cm, silver gelatin print
David Goldblatt, Waitress, Bezuidenhout Park, Johannesburg, 1973, 60 x 60 cm, silver gelatin print
David Goldblatt, "Highrise", Prospect Road, Hillbrow, Dezember 1973, 50 x 50 cm, Silbergelatineabzug
David Goldblatt, Silvia Gibbert in ihrer Wohnung, Melrose, Johannesburg, Oktober 1974, 50 x 50 cm, Silbergelatineabzug

Johannesburg

Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city, was founded in 1886 after the discovery there of large underground deposits of gold. Almost from its beginnings, the geographic demography of the city was largely determined by the reluctance of the white population to live among or in proximity to people of color. Whites controlled government and the mines and they required Blacks, Asians and Coloreds, people of mixed race, to live on the less salubrious fringes of the city – though not so far as to deny them the benefit of their labor and the spending of their income. The demography of Johannesburg was shaped by racial segregation long before apartheid.

For 17 year-old David Goldblatt, it was a shock when the National Party, many of whose leaders had supported the Nazis, won the 1948 parliamentary election. Born to Jewish parents of Lithuanian origin, he had witnessed racism and experienced anti-semitism in his childhood in Randfontein, a gold-mining town near Johannesburg. For a young man from a liberal background, a future under an openly racist regime was a gloomy prospect and Goldblatt seriously considered emigrating. But he stayed in South Africa and still lives there today. He became the most important chronicler in the country. For twelve years, he worked in and eventually managed his father’s men’s clothing shop. But after his death in 1962 he was able to fulfill a long-held ambition to devote himself fully to photography. In the years that followed, he came to realize how much his home country meant to him, despite his abhorrence of the political situation. His personal work has consisted of a series of critical explorations of South African society. One of these is an essay on Afrikaners – the section of the population whose influence on society he most disliked and feared, but who nevertheless fascinated him with the physicality of their presence in and deep-rooted ties with the country. He became aware that he himself was part of the complex structures whose values he has persistently probed and explored with the camera. Not as an activist or radical – his photographs are not of demonstrations or spectacular events – rather, in tranquil yet unsettling images of everyday life that draw the viewer in as a witness to the state of South African society. The restrained and subtle language of his pictures does not dilute their political significance.

“Johannesburg has changed,” David Goldblatt says today. “Everyone may live and work where they wish. But the demographics of the past will haunt us for many years to come. The city is still deeply fragmented. That, tragically, is its nature.” He knows what he is talking about. After all, he has been photographing there for some 60 years.

Biographical information

1930

born in Randfontein, South Africa

since 1963

works as a professional photographer on a full-time basis for international magazines such as LIFE Magazine or Picture Post

1980’s

begins working on a 15 year project that would culminate in the publication of “South Africa: The Structure of Things Then” (published in 1998)

1989

founds the "Photo Market Workshop" in Johannesburg, which is a school and research centre that offers training to members of disadvantaged social groups in particular

2001

receives an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts at the University of Cape Town Publication

2006

receives the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography

2009

receives the international Henri-Cartier-Bresson Award

2018

dies in Johannesburg, South Africa