David Goldblatt

Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Please note this work has been examined outside of its frame. There is very light creasing to the margins of the work, otherwise, the work appears to be in very good original condition.
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Born in 1930 in Randfontein, South Africa, a town just outside of the metropolis of Johannesburg, David Goldblatt has come to be recognized as one of Africa’s leading photographers. Known for his work surrounding one of South Africa’s most divisive periods in history, David Goldblatt never intended on using his lens to simply document the apartheid era. Instead, the artist strives to make lyrical photographs as a means to reflect on and to scrutinize the sometimes-harsh realities of his surroundings.  From depictions of working-class Afrikaners to the effects of the Bantustans on the black majority, David Goldblatt has created a large body of work that undoubtedly solidifies his title as the ‘father of South African documentary photography’ (Tamar Garb, Figures and Fictions, Contemporary South African Photography, 2011, p. 117).

Whilst Goldblatt’s earlier work focuses on the dynamics of South African society under apartheid, this edition of photographs is exemplary of Goldblatt’s more recent work concentrating on South Africa’s post-apartheid urban landscapes. The present work is an aerial shot of Diepsloot, a sprawling township to the north of Johannesburg, long ignored by the local government. Diepsloot is an expression of the artist’s frustration with how Johannesburg’s social and urban landscape has developed since the end of apartheid, specifically the misallocation of funding originally intended for communities such as Diepsloot. By choosing to take an aerial photograph of this community, the artist is emphasizing the expansiveness of these neighbourhoods and the sheer number of impoverished residents who continue to be denied access to basic necessities.