David Goldblatt’s black and white photographs depicts life and conditions during apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa. The Strange Instrument exhibition at Pace Gallery in New York features 45 vintage prints from Goldblatt that offers the artist’s view of the beauty, brutality and humanity in everyday lives under those conditions. “The camera is a strange instrument. It demands, first of all, that you see coherently. It makes it possible for you to enter into worlds, and places, and associations that would otherwise be very difficult to do.” – David Goldblatt, in an interview with Art21 that aired in September 2018
Featured image: Domestic Worker in Abel Road, Hillbrow 1973 gelatin silver hand print
Couple at the Wilds, Johannesburg, 1975 gelatin silver hand print Sleeping Man, Joubert Park, Johannesburg, 1975 gelatin silver hand printRichard and Marina Maponya, Dube, 1972 gelatin silver hand printA plot-holder with the daughter of his servant, Wheatlands, Randfontein, Transversal, 1962 gelatin silver hand printFrederick Jillie, unemployed clerk, ironing his dust coat in the Jabulani Men’s Hostel. His wife and five children lived 800 km away at Queenstown, where he visited them for 2 1/2 weeks every year. He had been doing this for 13 years. 16 September 1972 gelatin silver hand printRacially segregated beach areas and the boundary between them. Strand, Western Cape, 16 April 1963 gelatin silver Hamd print Woman resting at the trading store. Hobeni, Bomvanaland, Transkei 1975 gelatin silver hand printLuke Kgatitsoe at his house, bulldozed in February 1984 by the government after the forced removal of the people of Mapoga, a black-owned farm, which had been declared a “black spot”, Ventersdrop district, Transvaal, 21 October 1986 gelatin silver hand printCafé-de-Move-On (coffee cart) Croesus, 1964 gelatin silver hand printAt 39 Soper Road, Berra, May 1972, 1972 gelatin silver hand printSaturday morning at the Hypermarket; semi-final of the Miss Lovely Legs Competition, 1980 gelatin silver hand print
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Any pictures of artworks in galleries shown are taken with permission from gallery personnel and/or artist. Images from museums are taken where there were no visible postings prohibiting photography. All articles and photography by Avril Ives all rights reserved.
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