A Visual Chronicle of Apartheid's Impact Through David Goldblatt's Lens

Beginning his photographic journey in 1948—the year apartheid was instituted in South Africa—David Goldblatt emerged as a perceptive observer of a deeply divided society. A liberal Jewish youth opposed to racial segregation, he documented life across racial boundaries with a clear-eyed approach that avoided preaching. Over nearly seven decades until his passing in 2018, Goldblatt revealed the profound distortions and tensions apartheid inflicted, impacting both the oppressed majority and the ruling white minority.

The earliest image featured in the exhibition "David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive," currently on display through June 22 at Yale University Art Gallery and previously shown in Chicago and Madrid, dates from 1949. It depicts children—primarily Black, but some white—joyfully playing along the border of two working-class Johannesburg neighborhoods, Fietas and Mayfair. Soon after, these areas were reclassified as exclusively white, forcing many residents to relocate.

In contrast to the harsher realities that followed, this scene evokes a near-innocent moment before apartheid’s full force took hold. As white supremacy became rigidly entrenched, Goldblatt’s photographs reveal how South Africa—a land of immense wealth and natural beauty—was contorted into an unnatural social order. One powerful image shows a group of Black men gathered on a grassy hill overlooking Johannesburg’s towering skyline, a distant and unreachable symbol of the exclusion they faced.

Their role was confined largely to that of servants and laborers sustaining the city’s infrastructure. In 1983 and 1984, Goldblatt documented the daily journeys of Black workers commuting by bus from their communities to jobs in Pretoria. Capturing these long, exhausting trips—each lasting over three hours—he used fast film and natural lighting to produce grainy, somber images. Many passengers appear asleep, while others stand, visibly weary from the relentless commute.

Following the example of photographers like Dorothea Lange, Goldblatt enhanced the power of his images with detailed captions. These contextual notes, included in the exhibition and its accompanying catalog, provide essential insight for audiences unfamiliar with South Africa’s social landscape.