A MAJOR collection of photographs examining aspects of South African life and culture before and after apartheid is now on show in Liverpool city centre.
Intersections Intersected is the debut UK exhibition by acclaimed photographer and social history writer David Goldblatt, now on at the Open Eye gallery, on Wood Street.
Goldblatt has photographed his native South Africa since the early 1970s, carefully observing the social, cultural and economic divides that characterise the country.
His work examines the physical and ideological landscape, the legacy of the colonial era and the apartheid years of its recent past through carefully selected pairings of photographs made before and after the collapse of apartheid in 1990.
His colour work of the last decade explores the complex intersections between people, values and land in post-apartheid South Africa, developing and extending the approach of his major essays from the years of apartheid, which were executed almost exclusively in black and white.
In this exhibition, photographs from both periods are placed side by side, with each combination speaking eloquently of continuity and change in South Africa.
“It has been a really popular show and attracted all sorts of people,” says gallery co-ordinator Stephanie Blundell.
David Goldblatt was born in Randfontein, in 1930. His work has been shown worldwide, and his 2001 major retrospective exhibition, David Goldblatt – 51 Years, was shown in New York, Barcelona, Rotterdam, Lisbon, Oxford, Brussels, Munich and Johannesburg – but the collection at the Open Eye is the first major exhibition of his photography ever to be seen in the UK.
Now based in London, the photographer has been unable to travel up to Liverpool to see the exhibition, but his daughter, Brenda, has previously given a gallery talk.
