Witness the Evolution of Africa's Tallest Residential Skyscraper

4936-09_V2_Adobe_Final
The core of the building in mid-2008 as workers clear building rubble that had been thrown there as the only way of getting it down from the apartments.Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse courtesy Goodman Gallery
A Congolese woman was on her way to a wedding with her equally well-dressed husband. Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse courtesy Goodman Gallery
Ponte City, foregrounded by African Church members, and set against the Johannesburg skyline.Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse courtesy Goodman Gallery
A poster that advertised the failed redevelopment of 2007-08. The first of these yellow glass "pods" were actually built on the 34th floor alongside the show apartments and it took quite some courage to step into them.Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse courtesy Goodman Gallery
A section of our combined lightbox that puts together a photograph from every window in the building. The photographs are arranged exactly true to the architecture, flat-by-flat and floor-by-floor.Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse courtesy Goodman Gallery
A girl photographed in the Ponte City entrance-way through a dirty window at the height of the 2008 reconstruction.Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse courtesy Goodman Gallery
4943-07_V3_Adobe_Final
The northwest view looking over Hillbrow, from a 50th-floor apartment.Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse courtesy Goodman Gallery
A spread from the Ponte City book that includes a hand-written note with a map showing a Congolese refugee's journey to South Africa. This is overlaid on a photograph found in the same abandoned apartment.Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse courtesy Goodman Gallery
We spent a lot of time with this family, as the kids loved being photographed.Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse courtesy Goodman Gallery
A section from the televisions lightbox.Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse courtesy Goodman Gallery
The same apartment where the kids loved being photographed.Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse courtesy Goodman Gallery
The doors typology.Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse courtesy Goodman Gallery
A security guard sits at the old motorcar entrance to the complex.Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse courtesy Goodman Gallery
2511_04_V3_Sdobe_Final
A man and a young boy in an elevator.Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse courtesy Goodman Gallery

More Must-Reads From TIME

Contact us at letters@time.com