South Africa: The Structure of Things Then, by David Goldblatt

I've just bought the following book: South Africa: The Structure of Things Then, by David Goldblatt. Rather than go into the usual review I thought I would take one image and its caption (images are extensively captioned in this book). I'd first say that Goldblatt takes great pains to avoid the decorative, and further pains to make sure the full context is there. This book documents and informs thoroughly and therefore is priceless, in my opinion, not only as a record of the effects of Apartheid in South Africa, but also as a model for other documentary photographers to work with, while also acting as an antidote to the hysteria of mass market photojournalism.

"The significance of khaki has changed for the Boers. During the Anglo-Boer war of 1899-1902, khaki, the uniform of the kakies or tommies, was identified with British imperialism, the name kakiebos, khaki bush, was given to one of the more unpleasant weeds, the seeds of which were imported for the first time with fodder for the British forces in that war. But to right-wing Afrikaners of the 1980s and 90s, who regard themselves as the upholders and defenders of Boer republicanism, khaki has taken on an entirely different symbolic value. Khaki pants and shirts are the working clothes of many Afrikaners farmers; khaki symbolises the attachment of the Boer to his land. Khaki became the uniform of right-wing activists in such movements as the AWB [link to a pretty grusome image taken by a member of the so called Bang Bang club and marking the final days of Apartheid].

Here in Orania, a settlement established by right-wing Afrikaners as the nucleus of a proposed Afrikaner state or volkstaat, the khaki clothes for sale at a house in the village were therefore a means of demonstrating identification with certain values. They stood for Afrikaner mobilisation in the fight for their 'heritage', their land and as working clothes they signified the ideal of 'self-labour', which was embraced by these who came to Orania. There were to be no Blacks in Orania; there was to be none of the culture of dependence of Whites on Blacks for physical work that had been endemic in South African society since its origins in the economy of slavery at the Cape.

Before coming to Orania the man of this house held quite a senior job in the city of Bloemfintein. Now he earned a fraction of his previous income but declared that he was very happy, 'I get by on very little here and I don't have to worry about Kaffirs, communists, and trade unions'."

There are more pictures from the book here

Submitted by Philip Cartland on 30 November 2007 - 9:00am.

Anthropoetry

Phaidon publish a series of little books, called '55'. Each contains 128 pages dedicated to a 'master' photographer.

Though they don't cover a huge range of photographers, I like them because they're compact and the images are accompanied by explanatory captions and some background in the introduction. I keep them as a reference. Currently I'm disecting one dedicated to Graciela Iturbide.

All of the images in this volume show her interest in animals and their relationship to people. Some animals appear incidentally, and others quite intentionally, but collected together as a whole, in one volume, we can see Iturbide's special interest, namely: how "...different people around the world reflect on the finite nature of their existence as revealed in their dealings with animals, objects, ritual and daily existence..."

While we may classify her images loosely as documentary, her limited coverage of cultures and subjects show no particular scientific rigour to that aim. And so, instead, a very nice term: anthropoetry, quite aptly expresses her spirit, I think.

The book also suggests that Iturbide was aware of the exotic (the dangers of its appearance in photography of 'traditional cultures') and either avoided it or parodied it. Cuauhtemoc Medina, a critic and historian who wrote the intro, suggests that exoticism arises, not from the photographer but from Western eyes; the main consumers of her images. I nevertheless sense her images tainted slightly - poetry seems to use the exotic, sometimes, as a visual stimulator. I see her eyes as 'athropoetic Western', influenced by the same passion and tradition of some of the major photographers of her period. But I question whether that hint of exoticism is harmful at all. Is it one of those words that everyone knows is bad, having had it passed to them that way, but without knowing actually why?

Anyway, Iturbide is found not guilty on all counts of the exotic in the intro. I suspect, I'm not really in the know, someone may have to knock me into line.

Links:

• Side photographic gallery
• Profile of a photographer
• Throckmorton fine art

Submitted by Philip Cartland on 29 November 2007 - 10:18am.

Its a lie

Take this question put to Guy Tillim:

PM: At the same time you admit to capturing the 'worthy moment', which also points to all the countless moments of truth which go undocumented. Are there any photographs you have taken, which beyond the notion of looking for the photographic moment, have amounted to a visual lie?

and the answer:

GT: Yes, but I won't tell you which ones! Perhaps in this context there are no lies, but then there is no truth either.

Then you look at Tillim's images.

We only need half a brain to realise images lie (even quite as badly as say, the british media), and quite substantially more than a brain, bordering on superhuman abilities, to find the lie. If there is any judgment to be planted perhaps it should be sown near the intentions of the 'peddler'. In the case of the british media, the sentence? Life. In the case of Guy Tillim? The right to lie.

Submitted by Philip Cartland on 27 November 2007 - 12:00am.

Hearts of darkness

Probably it was when a friend gave me a book of stories by Flannery O'Connor that my imagination was invaded by the cocktail of religion, sex, death, loneliness, hopefulness and hopelessness, beauty and criminality that generally appear to make up certain inner recesses of the southern US imagination. I read Poachers stories, by Tom Franklin and Truman Capotes "In Cold Blood", I've recently watched the documentary 'Searching For The Wrong-Eyed Jesus', we all know Shelby Lee Adams (You've got to check out his blog) and there's the poetic "Sleeping by the Mississippi" by Alec Soth (look for the articles and related footnotes at the end of the slideshow).

Submitted by Philip Cartland on 24 November 2007 - 9:43pm.