Vanessa Thorpe writes about the new exhibition, David Goldblatt: Johannesburg 1948-2018, at Goodman Gallery in London. The show focuses on a particularly moving photo essay, Soweto, from 1972. The photographs in the series were taken over six months in a febrile atmosphere that would lead to an uprising in this impoverished area of Johannesburg four years later.
Jo Stella-Sawicka, senior director at Goodman Gallery, said: “We felt it especially important to exhibit this remarkable body of work at a time where we are seeing ongoing social injustices and racial inequality. It brings into clear focus how little has changed; in South Africa, economic disparity now divides communities, and here in the UK and the US we are seeing the effects of social division and inequality.”