Before I went back to Chicago I looked online and saw that David Goldblatt’s retrospective was up in the Art Institute’s Photography Galleries and noted the exhibition was closing while I was there.

I was aware of Goldblatt’s work but did not know it well, and I have never focused on South African photographers from a regional viewpoint. I obviously was aware of the social and political issues South Africa has gone through during my lifetime, but I never immersed myself in photographs from there as a whole. I do recall being very interested in South African photographer Kevin Carter and I have a had newspaper clipping of his obituary on my darkroom wall for close to 30 years. Carter documented a lot of pain and suffering in his lifetime, the nightmares from the things he witnessed eventually became too much and he took his own life. His photograph that accompanied his obituary was of a South African neo-Nazi Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB) member begging for his life moments before he was executed in Bophuthatswana, March 1994. It is an intense image, and I kept the article because of the message it had about dealing with the things you witness when you photograph bad things.

I was not “wow’ed” by the Art Institute’s online description of the exhibition, it was okay, but it wouldn’t have motivated me to plan a special trip to see it. So, when I eventually entered the exhibition I did so just interested to learn more about Goldblatt and his photographs. As I walked around the show it didn’t take long to realize that this was powerful the exhibition and that David Goldblatt was an excellent photographer. The exhibition exceeded my expectations gave me such a better appreciation of Goldblatt, other South African photographers, and the conditions which people in South Africa endured.

I was impressed that Goldblatt was able to document South Africa so completely. It is one thing to capture historical events like Kevin Carter did, but it is another thing to document something as complex as a country in depth. Goldblatt obviously had the skills to get to know different people and then make those people comfortable in front of his camera. Given the racial tensions of the period when Goldblatt photographed it was incredible he was able to document all sides so well. I also loved that Goldblatt documented the subtle important details of his country like the churches and mining. I came away from this exhibition with such a better understanding of South African and the people. I also had no idea the country was such a bleak landscape aesthetically.

The Art Institute of Chicago introduced the exhibition with the following:

Known for his nuanced portrayals of life under and after apartheid, South African photographer David Goldblatt (1930–2018) devoted himself to documenting his country and its people.

Born into a family of Lithuanian Jews who emigrated to South Africa, Goldblatt focused much of his work on Johannesburg, the city where he lived for most of his life. His relative freedom to move within a society bitterly divided by racial segregation influenced the critical perspective of his work. In a church facade, down a mineshaft, through the exchange of glances between a passing man and woman, Goldblatt recorded the uneven application and reception of South Africa’s political values and beliefs.

The Exhibition Title: “No Ulterior Motive”

If you say that someone has an ulterior motive for doing something, you believe that they have a hidden reason for doing it.

The exhibition included photographs from two other groups of photographers. One group, which included Robert Adams, considered photography’s privileged relationship to reality and its ability to effect social, political. and environmental change. The second group was South African photographers who had attended Goldblatt’s Market Photo Workshop. Goldblatt founded the workshop in 1989 to develop emerging local photographers with a goal to help bring his country closer together again after years of internal turmoil.

A powerful reminder of the staggering loss of life during the AIDS epidemic. After enduring the Covid Pandemic I am afraid many people have forgotten this chapter of world history.

I love the power of this image; it reminds me of one of Leonard Freed’s Police Work images where he focuses in on just the officer’s equipment, almost exactly the same portion of the torso.

(Link to exact image I am referencing, it is on the 12th page of the PDF)

Goldblatt’s photographs of churches were so beautiful. They were wonderful architectural images, but they were deep with meaning capturing the issues of a missionary religion in a nonnative land. They symbolize the conflicts within the country which mirrored issues throughout other parts of the world. When I thought about South Africa it was about Apartheid and relationships between blacks and whites, I had not considered the impact of western religion on the indigenous population (I should have because it is an issue still in our country today), nor did I know about the issues with the Muslim population in the country. In researching the issue of religion further, it appears the conflicts and violence in South Africa related to it appear to be ongoing to this day.

The photograph above of Ozzie and his daughter is wonderful, they look like great people and Nassima looks so full of life. I had no idea this population was in South Africa nor about how their businesses werer destroyed under the Group Areas Act.

The layers of meaning in this image are incredible, it absolutely was one of my favorite prints in the exhibition. It speaks to so many different issues, there is humor, tension, and great composition.

These two images are examples of how brilliant a photographer Goldblatt was. To think to photograph in a funeral home office, then garner the trust of the people there to actually photograph there and come away with images of a basic environment that are so deep with layers of meaning and information is incredible. I keep revisiting the top image and pondering the fact there is a tapestry of the NASA moon landing in the office of a South African funeral parlor.

For a portrait to work for me I always want more information than just what the subject looks like, I want to know about their environment; I think the only photographer to pull off photographing just the person well was Richard Avedon. The subtle information in these images is outstanding. Depicts a bleak, hard, lifestyle. I like his composition with the square format images especially. When I look at the photograph of J.J. Oosthuizen in his office (upper right) I can feel how hot and uncomfortable it is. He obviously holds a position of authority as a Senior Township Superintendent, but it looks like a miserable job. The juxtaposition of this photograph in the exhibition was next to a photograph of a man butchering a broken-down horse which also added to the experience seeing the image.

I see innocence and hope in this image, it suggests the kids are capable of being color blind. These kids are just laughing and playing together for Goldblatt’s camera. The world today needs more innocence and less stress.

This is one of those photographs when I look at it, I can imagine all the other senses from the moment, the temperature, the odors, and maybe even some dust. I love the composition as well; the framing makes the image more powerful by including all the extra information.

Goldblatt’s photograph of The Dethroning Cecil John Rhodes - University of Cape Town April 9, 2015, is another great image. The vantage point he chose was perfect because it documents the scale and showcases the relationship between the youth and the country beyond. I also like that the image captures all the people using cellphones and tablets to film or photograph the event. This element speaks to the medium of photography as well as the time in history, it’s another great layer. I also love that fact that Goldblatt was still getting out with the people and photographing at 85 years old. That is one of the wonderful things about being a photographer you never have to retire from it, if you adjust you can keep making images all the way to the end, or at least that’s my goal. Earlier this month I was out photographing the WeHo Pride parade with 84-year-old LA based photographer Ave Pildas and it took considerable effort for me to keep track of where he was because he kept darting through the crowd and often the actual parade (Also, height wise Ave doesn’t stand out like I do).

Goldblatt’s color images are beautiful, and they showcase his ability to photograph in different styles. The photographs perfectly document the environmental issues Goldblatt was bringing to our attention. I was not aware of Blue Asbestos mining or the issues it caused in South Africa. These prints are perfect compliments to the rest of the exhibition.

As I have said throughout this post this was a good exhibition, incredible images which were curated and displayed perfectly. I have paid more and more attention to the choices curators make when it comes to selection and exhibition design, it is an artform of its own. Matthew Witkovsky, Leslie Wilson, and Yechen Zhao from the Art Institute of Chicago curated this exhibition with Judy Ditner from Yale. David Goldblatt’s archive was acquired by the Yale University Art Museum in 2018. The Yale University Press published the accompanying catalogue for the exhibition.

Announcement and Reviews

Exhibition Announcement Press Release

New City Art Exhibition Review

Musee Review 1 Musee Review 2

A special thanks to my tour guide Alyssa for taking the day off from deciphering Genetics stuff to guide me around the galleries of the Art Institute.

Detailed Separate Exhibition Reviews:

The Art Institute of Chicago introduced the exhibition with the following:

The Exhibition Title: “No Ulterior Motive”

Announcement and Reviews

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