Patience Poni visiting her parents Ruth and Jackson Poni, 1510A Emdeni South, Soweto (2_11376)

David Goldblatt
Patience Poni visiting her parents Ruth and Jackson Poni, 1510A Emdeni South, Soweto (2_11376) , 1972
Platinum print on Arches Platine 310gm
Image: 37 x 37 cm

Goldblatt spent years taking photographs of Johannesburg – of the white areas of the city centre, the comfortable suburbs and the townships on the outskirts of the city. "With a camera, I was for the first time able to expand my experience of other people’s lives. Making portraits of people in Soweto in 1972 was a significant moment for me fundamentally," said Goldblatt of his 1972 photographic essay. Goldblatt was engaged in the conditions of society and the values by which people lived, rather than the climactic outcomes of those conditions. He intended to discover and probe these values through the medium of photography.