29/11/2025
“I regard myself as an unlicensed, self-appointed observer and critic of South African society which I continue to explore with the camera.” David Goldblatt
David Goldblatt, who would have celebrated his 95th birthday today, chronicled the structures, people and landscapes of South Africa from 1948 until his death in June 2018. Well known for his photography which explored both public and private life in South Africa, Goldblatt created a body of powerful images depicting life during the time of apartheid. When apartheid ended he concentrated more on the country's landscapes. What differentiates Goldblatt's body of work from those of other anti-apartheid artists is that he photographed issues that went beyond the violent events of the era and reflected the conditions that led up to them. His forms of protest have a subtlety that traditional documentary photographs may lack. Despite being the first South African to be given a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and in 2018 a major retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, he never thought of himself as an artist. That wasn’t important to him. All that mattered was staying engaged and using photography to understand South Africa, and we are immensely grateful for his dedication.
Images in order of appearance:
Young men with dompas, the identity document that every African over the age of 16 years had to carry, White City, Jabavu, Soweto, November 1972 from “Structures of Dominion and Democracy”
Sarie Flink doing her hair; she lived with her aunt, who farmed here at Kleine Rivier, Buffelsdrift, between Oudtshoorn and Uniondale, Western Cape. 23 November 2004 from “Regarding Intersections”
Woman smoking. Fordsburg, Johannesburg. 1975 from “Particulars”
Eyesight testing at the Vosloorus Eye Clinic of the Boksburg Lions Club, in Vosloorus, the township in which the black people of Boksburg were compelled to live from “In Boksburg”
