Arriving Family, King George Street, Johannesburg

David Goldblatt

1950–1960

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Photograph of man, woman, and child walking down city street with high-rise building and two rickshaws in background. — In this photograph, David Goldblatt captured a Black family newly arrived in Johannesburg, looking small and vulnerable as they pass the tall pole of a streetlamp, with massive buildings looming behind them. Goldblatt dedicated much of his work to documenting racial injustice in South Africa. He also had a great interest in buildings and how they interacted with both the physical and political landscape.

Credits

Photograph by David Goldblatt.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 9.

Imprisonment of Jewish Leaders

[To my brother PN, your brother Islah. It is well for me here]. May the gods seek after your welfare at all times. And now, . . . PN son of PN went to Syene and did/made . . . . Behold, these are the…

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Single page in ink on vellum featuring image of throne in center with bird of prey above, surrounded by Hebrew writing.

Amulet for the protection of women and newborn children

Amulets were crafted to protect pregnant women and newborn children from the powers of the evil Lilith, Adam’s mythical first wife. Mystical texts surround this image, written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and…

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Photograph of men in hats and suits and one boy in skullcap outside with their backs turned away from the camera, looking toward the river.

Yom Kippur, East River, New York City

Though this photograph of Orthodox Jews at the East River has long been captioned as having been taken on Yom Kippur, it is much more likely that it was taken on the first afternoon of Rosh Hashanah…

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Creator Bio

David Goldblatt

1930–2018

David Goldblatt photographed and documented South African society for more than fifty years. Of Lithuanian Jewish heritage, Goldblatt was born in Randfontein. He began photographing professionally in the early 1960s, focusing on the effects of the National Party’s legislation of apartheid. Over the years, he chronicled the plight of black communities, the culture of the Afrikaner nationalists, and the comfort of white suburbanites, as well as the condition of race relations in the country after the end of apartheid. Goldblatt received the Hasselblad Photography Award (2006) and the Henri-Cartier Bresson Award (2009).

Details

Public Access

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