Seeing the Other Side of White in David Goldblatt's Some Afrikaners Photographed Open Access

Abstract

David Goldblatt's Some Afrikaners Photographed presents a counter-history to the dominant narrative of Afrikaner nationalism. First published in 1975, this book of eighty black and white photographs each with an accompanying text seeks to establish a more complicated and less monolithic history than that espoused by the Afrikaner National Party. In his photographs of mostly rural poor Afrikaners, Goldblatt reflects on his subject's marginalized status while simultaneously exploring his own position within the social and racial structures of Apartheid South Africa. This paper will examine the multiple narratives surrounding heritage, history and nationalism as seen through Goldblatt's lens. Goldblatt's images weave together a complex story about national belonging and how this concept is understood both by the disempowered and those with great power. Ultimately, Some Afrikaners Photographed illustrates the nuances and grey spots apparent in a time of mythic re-structuring in South Africa.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Epigraph by Richie Hofmann 1
I. Introduction: Visualizing an Afrikaner Counter-History 2
II. An Introduction to the Photographs 7
III. David Goldblatt: Making History 10

IV. Finding the Frame: The Trouble with Typologies 16
V. Performing the Past: The Construction of Afrikaner National Heritage 18
VI. Outside the Margins of Present Histories 26
VII. Gelykstelling: Fear and Fact 31

VIII. Social Reality and the Fiction of Photography 34
IX. David Goldblatt's Meta-Narrative 38

X. David Goldblatt's Present Pasts 42


Bibliography 47
Image Appendix 50

About this Master's Thesis

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School	Laney Graduate School
Department	Art History
Degree	MA
Submission	Master's Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Art History
Keyword	South African Photography
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Kasfir, Sidney L, Emory University
Committee Members	Scully, Pamela F, Emory University

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