Soweto: Young men with dompas, White City, Jabavu. © David Goldblatt
David Goldblatt was just 18 years old when the National Party was elected to power in South Africa – a group which institutionalised legal segregation that systematically exploited and oppressed the majority black nation. His new book, Structures of Dominion and Democracy (Steidl) begins in 1949 and continues through 2016, taking us across a sweeping arc of history that is sensitive to the ways in which apartheid penetrated every aspect of life for men, women, and children, both black and white.
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In Goldblatt’s hands, the camera became a tool that allows him to not only record the moment, but to be an extension of the event itself. “This strange property of the photograph… creates tension,” he writes in an essay titled “Why and What” at the beginning of the book. “It pulls between a heightened awareness of reality and a growing recognition of its possible photograph. For me, this tension is part of the excitement.”
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Soweto: Margaret Mcingana at home on a Sunday afternoon, Zola. As Margaret Singana she became a famous singer. She died on 22 April 2000 at the age of 63. © David Goldblatt