Notes

The landscape is a recurring subject in David Goldblatt’s lauded photography. South Africa’s rural landscapes however only became a dominant subject in his post- 2000 output. Prompted by an offer to show at the Museum Kunst Palast in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 2005, Goldblatt began taking new large-format colour photographs of places where degrees of latitude and longitude intersected. Goldblatt abandoned the project sometime during 2002–03, after photographing 16 of a possible 122 intersections. Goldblatt found little of interest to photograph: ‘I want to find things that in some way move me, or that I feel are relevant or significant to what I am concerned about.’ He nonetheless saw the failure as ‘very useful’ in that he realised he had been ‘speeding past points that were really interesting. I have given myself an open brief driving around South Africa, looking at literally anything that I find of interest.’¹

This photograph, of which only three prints in the edition were ever made, is emblematic. Goldblatt continued this roaming until shortly before his death in 2018. Note: editions 2 and 3 of this work are larger A0 prints; edition 3 has been bequeathed to Yale University; no further editions will ever be made.

Sean O’Toole

1. David Goldblatt, pers. comm., telephone interview with Sean O’Toole, 11 November 2003.

Provenance

Artist donation to the Bag Factory’s 25th anniversary auction, Johannesburg, 17 November 2016.

Proceeds from the sale of this lot to benefit the Bag Factory.