David Goldblatt. “Hasselblad Award 2006”

David Goldblatt‘s work is a life long observation of the social and political developments within South African society. He has been concerned to explore the relationship between individual subjects and the structures within which they live. His interest in the violent history of his country, and his awareness of the symbolic significance of architecture, form an extraordinary statement both personal and socio-political. Photography, in the words of David Goldblatt, reveals “something of the subtlety and ambiguity of our shifting and frequently contradictory perceptions of reality.” The reason why Goldblatt has been chosen for the Hasselblad Award is because his photographs are acute in historical and political perception. They provide a sense of the texture of daily life, and an important piece of missing information regarding life under apartheid in South Africa.