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Remembering South African Photographer David Goldblatt

The commando of National Party stalwarts which escorted prime minister and National Party leader Hendrik Verwoerd and his wife Betsie to the party's 50th anniversary celebrations at de Wildt, Transvaal. 1964 - David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
The commando of National Party stalwarts which escorted prime minister and National Party leader Hendrik Verwoerd and his wife Betsie to the party's 50th anniversary celebrations at de Wildt, Transvaal. 1964 David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery

South African photographer David Goldblatt, born in 1930, made images that were shaped by the political history with which his lifespan intersected, and he possessed a singular drive to capture the truths of his country in a manner that was both urgent and nuanced. When he died on Sunday at 87, he left a legacy of rich reflection in the form of his many books.

Goldblatt’s grandparents joined South Africa’s Jewish émigré population having fled persecution in Lithuania during the 1890s. His father ran a haberdashery in Randfontein, a mining town 25 miles west of Johannesburg, on the Witwaterstrand, the gold-bearing escarpment for which South Africa’s currency, the rand, is named.

On the Mines; The Transported of KwaNdebele; Intersections; Some Afrikaners Revisited; South Africa The Structure of Things Then; In Boksburg; Particulars
On the Mines; The Transported of KwaNdebele; Intersections; Some Afrikaners Revisited; South Africa The Structure of Things Then; In Boksburg; Particulars

Goldblatt was perpetually aware of racial injustice growing up, well before the National Party made South Africa globally notorious for apartheid. His family home was near a police station where, he wrote, “early in the morning you would see in the yard the Africans who had been arrested the previous day—mostly for pass offences, I presume—being handcuffed together in rows… and marched through the streets of the town to the Magistrate’s Court. It was inconceivable that whites would have been subject to this humiliation.”

This era was also the golden age of the big picture magazine, and Goldblatt was enthralled with LIFE and Look and Picture Post. He attempted to be a news photographer for a time but, he wrote, “gradually developed the sense that it was the underbelly the drew me—the values and conditions that gave rise to events.” After his father died in 1962 and he sold the family business, he was able to pursue his passion full time. Married to his wife Lily in 1955, they set up house with a darkroom in the dining room closet, where Goldblatt taught himself camera and printing techniques through Ansel Adams’ famous book series.

Self-portrait at Consolidated Main Reef Mines, Roodepoort. May 1967 - David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
Self-portrait at Consolidated Main Reef Mines, Roodepoort. May 1967 David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery

The best way to explore Goldblatt’s oeuvre is through his books, many of which are cherished in the global photographic community. Goldblatt published books for many years in small editions with the help of passionate supporters before attracting worldwide attention. Several of these have been republished over the years, notably by the German publisher Steidl, whose editions feature superior printing that surpasses the first editions. Such is the case with Goldblatt’s first book, On the Mines, originally published in 1973, and published in an improved edition by Steidl in 2014. The book was a collaboration with the late, Nobel-Prize-winning writer Nadine Gordimer, who was born in the town of Springs about 40 miles from Goldblatt, with a similar backdrop of mining in her upbringing.

Goldblatt’s book Some Afrikaners Photographed (1975), considered the day-to-day lives of working-class Afrikaners who benefited from the racist ideology that had become the rule of law during apartheid. Another related canonical book project was In Boksburg (1982), which scrutinized the habits of seemingly ordinary suburban whites of all stripes, living their seemingly moral lives while blacks were banished from the town, barred from owning land or participating in government. Goldblatt characterized his interest in Boksburg as a question: “How is it possible to be upright, decent, ordinary—and yet be complicit in, even supportive of, a system that was simply insane, but immoral, evil.” The genius of his searing photographic indictments is that his images achieved what he termed “a neutral optical effect,” which didn’t take the easy route of villainizing his subjects.

Arriving family, King George Street, Johannesburg. c. 1955 - David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
Arriving family, King George Street, Johannesburg. c. 1955 David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
Wedding on a farm in the Barkly East district, Cape Province (Eastern Cape). December 1966 - David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
Wedding on a farm in the Barkly East district, Cape Province (Eastern Cape). December 1966 David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery

Goldblatt cared deeply about the facts—about truth. It was the details that could point us to the big picture. His book South Africa the Structure of Things Then (1998), focused on the built environment—churches, shopping centers, monuments, housing—and the ways it reflected colonial and apartheid ideology. While that book (known as “Structures” to Goldblatt devotees) is more important, in the sense that it formed the basis of his first U.S. show, which was held at the Museum of Modern Art, his book Particulars is another gem that also focused on details. This book examined the hands, feet and postures of South Africans, black and white. The photos in Particulars are close to intrusively intimate, and stunning in the volumes Goldblatt could tell about culture and privilege in a single human gesture. He made the photos in Particulars in the 1970s and it was published in a limited edition by Goodman Gallery in the 2003. The book won the Recontres d’Arles Book Prize in 2004, and was luckily one of the Goldblatt books revisited and republished with Steidl, in 2014.

Never resting on his laurels, he was working on two books with Steidl that are still to be published, one contending with the culture of violent crime in South Africa, Ex-offenders at the Scene of the Crime, and another on the suburb of Fietas, an area where Indian residents were forcibly removed under apartheid.

At a meeting of the Voortrekkers in the suburb of Whitfield, Boksburg. June 1980 - David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
At a meeting of the Voortrekkers in the suburb of Whitfield, Boksburg. June 1980 David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
A plot-holder with the daughter of his servant, Wheatlands, Randfontein. September 1962 - David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
A plot-holder with the daughter of his servant, Wheatlands, Randfontein. September 1962 David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
Miriam Mazibuko waters the garden of her RDP house for which she waited eight years. It consists of one room. Her four children live with her in-laws. Extension 8, Far East Alexandra Township, 12 September 2006 - David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
Miriam Mazibuko waters the garden of her RDP house for which she waited eight years. It consists of one room. Her four children live with her in-laws. Extension 8, Far East Alexandra Township, 12 September 2006 David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
Saturday morning at the Hypermarket: Semi-final of the Miss Lovely Legs Competition. 28 June 1980 - David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
Saturday morning at the Hypermarket: Semi-final of the Miss Lovely Legs Competition. 28 June 1980 David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
Saturday afternoon in Sunward Park, Boksburg. April 1979 - David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
Saturday afternoon in Sunward Park, Boksburg. April 1979 David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
Sleeping man, Joubert Park, Johannesburg. 1975 - David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
Sleeping man, Joubert Park, Johannesburg. 1975 David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
Carvings for sale at the corner of Central and Eleven Avenues, Houghton, Johannesburg. May 2006 - David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
Carvings for sale at the corner of Central and Eleven Avenues, Houghton, Johannesburg. May 2006 David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
Gang on surface work, Rustenburg Platinum Mine, Rustenburg. 1971 - David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
Gang on surface work, Rustenburg Platinum Mine, Rustenburg. 1971 David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
Funeral of 58 Basotho shaftsinkers, killed underground while charging up during the sinking of a new shaft. Buffelsfontein, November 1969 - David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
Funeral of 58 Basotho shaftsinkers, killed underground while charging up during the sinking of a new shaft. Buffelsfontein, November 1969 David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
Wolwekraal-Marabastad route: In the hope of sleep, many, after sitting down, cover their faces with cloths or rugs or caps; some try to cushion their heads. 1983 - David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
Wolwekraal-Marabastad route: In the hope of sleep, many, after sitting down, cover their faces with cloths or rugs or caps; some try to cushion their heads. 1983 David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
Going to work, Mathysloop, KwaNdebele, 1984 - David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
Going to work, Mathysloop, KwaNdebele, 1984 David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
Braiding hair on Bree Street, Johannesburg. 7 September 2002 - David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
Braiding hair on Bree Street, Johannesburg. 7 September 2002 David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
George Nkomo, informal trader, Fourways, Joburg. 21 August 2002 - David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery
George Nkomo, informal trader, Fourways, Joburg. 21 August 2002 David Goldblatt—Courtesy of the Goodman Gallery

Joanna Lehan is a photography curator, writer and teacher in New York.

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