David Goldblatt was a South African photographer noted for his portrayal of South Africa during the period of apartheid. Later in his life after apartheid had ended his work was more focused on the country's landscapes, among other things.
Background
David Goldblatt was born on November 29, 1930 in Randontein, South Africa. He was the youngest of the three sons of Eli and Olga Goldblatt. His grandparents arrived in South Africa from Lithuania around 1893, having fled the persecution of Jews there.
Goldblatts father ran a clothing store, where his mother worked as a typist for a clothing company, whichDavid Goldblatt speculated that may have been how they met.
Education
David Goldblatt attended Krugersdorp High School, and graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand with a degree in commerce. He also received an honorary doctorate in fine arts from the University of Cape Town in 2001.
Career
David Goldblatt began photographing when he was a teenager, he got his first camera from his father who bought it from Goldblatt's brother who brought home a damaged German Contax camera when he came back from serving in World War II. Though his first photographs were not ground breaking he enlisted the help from a wedding photographer. A couple years later as his skill developed he sold his fathers clothing shop in 1963, that he took over when his father died in 1962 to become a full-time photographer. He documented developments in South Africa through the period of apartheid until it ended in the 1990s.
After apartheid, David Goldblatt continued to shoot photographs within South Africa in which he mostly took photos of the landscape among other things.
In the 1990s he began working in color, in a sense adapting to the digital age. In the work he created during apartheid he never photographed in color. In Goldblatt's view he observed that, "the use of colour during apartheid would have been inappropriate. It would have enhanced the beautiful and the personal, whereas black and white photographs to more effectively documented the external dramatic contradictions that defined this earlier period."
David Goldblatt died on 25 June 2018 in Johannesburg from cancer. However, Goldblatt keep creating photographs up until his death, he founded the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg in 1989 and turned no photographer, struggling or famous away from his door. David was always accessible to everyone no matter what, even in his later life. He is survived by his wife, Lily Goldblatt and his children Steven, Brenda and Ronnie; and two grandchildren.
Views
Quotations:
"I am a self-appointed observer and critic of the society into which I was born, with a tendency to giving recognition to what is overlooked or unseen."