David Goldblatt at the Barbican

As part of the Barbican's new exhibition Everything was Moving: Photography from the 60s and 70s, I attended In Conversation with David Goldblatt...

This exhibition surveys photography from an international perspective and includes the work of photographers from around the globe who worked during those decades.

It features 12 key figures including Bruce Davidson, William Eggleston, David Goldblatt, Graciela Iturbide, Boris Mikhailov,Sigmar Polke, Malick Sidibé, Shomei Tomatsu, and Li Zhensheng as well as important innovators whose lives were cut tragically short such as Ernest Cole, Raghubir Singh andLarry Burrows.

David Goldblatt's work has a sharp and subtle take on on life in South Africa under apartheid and in this session he discussed his work with the London based duo - Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin.

Goldblatt spoke of his latest project - portraits of offenders at the scene of the crime.  He was inspired by the violence and very high levels of crime in South Africa.  It is something that everyone experiences directly and it is a very big problem.

His workflow
Although many photographers have chosen to work on this subject, Goldblatt wanted to come at it from a different angle.  He is interested in their story, not in a way where he is a therapist or social worker or even trying to make sense of their actions.  He is interested in simply documenting it.

He interviews his subjects, they are told what he wants to do, where the images will be shown and the consequences for their futures is they 'sign up'.  Their pictures will be out in the open and if their misdemeanours are made public it could upset their job prospects or other future plans.  He pays 800 rand to any subject who signs up.

He shoots them at the scene of their crimes.  This, he explains, is often a very painful journey for them to make.  What strikes me most about Goldblatt is how much detail he knows about each subject.  You can't help but feel emotional about some of the stories - an emotion that he doesn't seem to share at times as he sticks to the role of documenter.

Black and white
The images he showed were in black and white despite having used colour for his personal work after apartheid.   Goldblatt feels there is something deeply wrong in South Africa and that is a dangerous and troublesome place to live.  He has returned to the black and white medium because of this and also because it is a medium he is very comfortable using.

Goldblatt sees all photographs as documents whether they are passport photos, his work, CCTV stills etc.  They all document something.

Text and captions
He spoke about the importance of text for him in relation to displaying his work.  It is extremely important for him to set out the context for each of his images.  I felt that with each anecdote he provided to the images he showed up new life was breathed into the pictures.  Their meaning had a greater significance.  He insists that text is always laid out beside his images and not in a standalone brochure when his work is exhibited.

I found Goldblatt to be very down to earth with a no nonsense attitude but not to the point of being arrogant.  He has a passion for photography, for documenting his people and his country.  But what strikes me most is his passion to always be true to himself and the honesty in and about his achievements.

Most interestingly, the title of the exhibition Everything was moving he said was incorrect for his photography as in South Africa everything was standing still.  No progress, no advancements.

I plan to attend the exhibition before it closes in January 2013 and I will write my comments on that experience on my blog.

http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=13613