Menu
Aeon
DonateNewsletter
SIGN IN
Email
Save
Post
Share

Aeon Video has a monthly newsletter!

Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.

David Goldblatt captured the contradictions of apartheid in stark black and white

Save

For nearly six decades, the celebrated South African photographer David Goldblatt (1930-2018) documented the impact of apartheid on South Africa. As a white Jewish native of Johannesburg, he brought both an insider and outsider perspective to his country, which was dominated by a white Christian Afrikaner elite. And, although he viewed his work as a ‘dialogue’ between himself, his subjects and his fellow South Africans rather than an instrument of liberation, it carried a nuanced yet powerful critique of the contradictions and cruelties of apartheid. His non-commercial projects before apartheid’s fall in 1994 were shot only in monochrome, with Goldblatt finding colour to be ‘too sweet a medium to express the anger, disgust and fear’ of the era. Filmed during the final months of Goldblatt’s life, this short by the nonprofit organisation Art21 provides a glimpse into his unwavering career as a photographer. Portraying him as anti-censorship and intent on providing a detached and observational look at his country’s ever-changing landscape until the end, the film offers a worthy bookend to Goldblatt’s impressive body of work.

Video by Art21

Director: Ian Forster

24 May 2023
Email
Save
Post
Share