'Location in the sky': the servants' quarters of Essanby house. Jeppe Street, Johannesburg (4_3563)

David Goldblatt
'Location in the sky': the servants' quarters of Essanby house. Jeppe Street, Johannesburg (4_3563), April 1984
Silver gelatin hand print
Image: 35 x 28 cm

'Location in the sky' captures guarded buildings in the centre of Johannesburg where migrant workers live. The buildings reflect the legacies of segregationist policies of the apartheid government which controlled the flow of Black people in and out of cities. Through this series, Goldblatt captures place as well as the spirit of the people who inhabit the place, he noted; “To me there is a seamless relationship between people and their places. People are marked by the places in which they have their being, and there are few places unmarked by the passing, the hand, the presence of people….There is a casual intimacy in this mutual relationship that inevitably permeates much photography. I don’t need people in a photograph to know that people are there.” — David Goldblatt, Photographers References, 2014.