DAVID GOLDBLATT WITH CHERINE FAHD – The photographer’s studio

CLASS KIT

mca.com.au/learn MCA Introduction 2

DAVID GOLDBLATT: PHOTOGRAPHS 1948–2018 – Exhibition introduction

David Goldblatt was the grandson of Lithuanian-Jewish migrants. He was born in the small gold-mining town of Randfontein in 1930 and later lived and worked in . He took his first black-and-white photographs as a teenager in the late 1940s, teaching himself from instructional books. Following the death of his father in 1962, he turned full-time to photography.

Over the next 30 years he documented the people and places, industry and landscape of under – a political system founded on racial segregation and persecution of black South Africans under white minority rule – and after 1991, its dismantling and legacy.

The exhibition David Goldblatt: Photographs 1948–2018, is the largest retrospective of Goldblatt’s work in the region and marks the photographer’s final project before his death.

Photograph: Warren van Rensburg MCA Introduction 3

CHERINE FAHD: THE PHOTOGRAPHER’S STUDIO – Introduction

For two decades artist Cherine Fahd (b.1974) has worked with documentary approaches to image making. Many of her early works explored ways to both conceal and reveal herself and her subjects from view, as well as capturing unusual gestures. She continues to test the distinctions between images that are staged and unstaged, formal and documentary, while asking questions of the ways we perform for the camera. This has evolved from an enduring focus on everyday experiences, with often humorous results, and asks questions about the politics of appearance, race and identity.

The MCA has invited Fahd to create an interactive space in response to David Goldblatt. Inspired by Goldblatt’s series Particulars (1975) and titled The Photographer’s Studio, the audience is invited to look closely, pose and capture the details of the human body within the space, and take turns being both photographer and subject.

This learning resource has been written with Fahd and expands on ideas from The Photographer’s Studio through the themes of power and agency and masking and anonymity. Photograph: Cherine Fahd MCA Introduction 4

Pick up a camera (this could be an actual camera, a smartphone or an imaginary camera). Point your camera at someone. Notice how your subject behaves in front of the camera.

• Did their behaviour change? • Swap roles. Did you prefer to be in front of the camera or behind it? • Do you like being in front of a camera? Why or why not? WARM-UP MCA 5

POWER AND AGENCY MCA Power and agency 6

power NOUN [Pronunciation: /ˈpaʊə/] 1. the ability or capacity to do something or act in a particular way. 2. the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behaviour of others or the course of events. agency NOUN [Pronunciation: /‘eɪdʒ(ə)nsi/] 2. the capacity, condition, or state of acting or of exerting power. the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices

dictionary.com MCA Power and agency 7

Pick up your camera. This time join your subject in your photo and take a portrait/self-portrait. Swap roles and take turns taking the photograph.

• As the photographer, how did your approach to this photo change compared to the last warm-up? • As the subject, did you feel less or more comfortable sharing the frame with your photographer? Why? WARM-UP MCA Power and agency 8

David Goldblatt’s unique 1975 series titled Particulars (1975) focuses on details of the body: gestures of hands and feet, an ear lobe, the side of a face, a breast, fingers emerging from beneath cloth and seated postures. Goldblatt notes he became obsessed with parts of people’s bodies after working on a lot of portraits. Consequently, in 1975, he spent six months photographing the details of people in public places such as parks.

David Goldblatt Child minder, Joubert Park, Johannesburg, 1975 silver gelatin photograph on fibre-based paper 40 x 40 cm, edition of 10 Courtesy The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust and Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg and Cape Town, and Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris MCA Power and agency 9

“ This series resonates with my own practice which over the past two decades has focused on body parts through strategies of revealing and concealing as well considering the ‘voyeurism’ that is often implicit when photographing people in public spaces.

”Cherine Fahd, 2018 MCA Power and agency 10

Top row, left to right: David Goldblatt, Blanketed man at the trading store, Hobeni, Bomvanaland, Transkei, 1975; David Goldblatt, Woman with pierced ear, Joubert Park, Johannesburg. 1975, 1975; David Goldblatt, Woman collecting shellfish, Port St Johns, Transkei, 1975. Bottom row, left to right: David Goldblatt, Couple at The Wilds, Johannesburg, 1975; David Goldblatt, Girl with purse, Joubert Park, Johannesburg 1975, 1975; David Goldblatt, Man with necklaces, Joubert Park, Johannesburg, 1975. All artworks: silver gelatin photograph on fibre-based paper, 40 x 40 cm approx., edition of 10. All courtesy The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust and Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg and Cape Town, and Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris MCA Power and agency 11

To point a camera at a person triggers an encounter between the photographer and the subject/s. This encounter raises a number of questions concerning the power of the photographer and the personal agency (or power) of the subject. Think about the relationship between a photographer and subject. Do you think either one has more power than the other? Why or why not?

• Look at the photos in the series Particulars on the previous pages. What kind of relationship do you think there is between the photographer and each subject? • What do you think the photographer was trying to convey by focusing on these details? DISCUSSION • Do you think the subjects would have preferred a different detail to IDEAS have been captured? MCA Power and agency 12 “ Through the pose and thus the performance for the camera, the subject can be understood to collaborate with the photographer in what will eventually come to be a visual representation of their appearance.

”Cherine Fahd, 2018 MCA Power and agency 13

In this series You Look Like a… (2016–2017) I photographed twelve men who wear beards as a style choice. The project focused on the status of appearing Arabic and what it signals in an Anglo culture like . I was interested in how men of Arabic appearance were being depicted in the media as terrorists, ISIS sympathisers or Jihadis and how this impacted the lives of ordinary citizens. I was also interested in the way the rise of the ‘hipster’ beard coincided with the western media’s obsession with categorically picturing Muslim men as bearded terrorists. In this series I asked my bearded subjects to look away from the camera, to avert their gaze. This undoes the institutional requirement of identity photographs that require the subject to look at the camera. It paradoxically may also make them appear vulnerable, as we, the viewers, are able to gaze upon them without them gazing back. - Cherine Fahd

Cherine Fahd You Look Like a..., 2016–2017 Digital c-type Image courtesy and © Cherine Fahd MCA Power and agency 14

In the series You Look Like a... Fahd asked her subjects to look away from the camera in opposition to identity photographs. Why would Fahd want to create an image in opposition to identity photographs?

• When taking an identity photograph, what ways do you lose control of your image? Consider the framing, lighting, background, your pose. • What effect on the portrait does looking away from the camera have compared to the subject looking directly at the camera? • What could you do to give power back to your subject and give DISCUSSION them more agency in their representation? IDEAS MCA Power and agency 15

“ I do believe that in portraits, when the eyes are looking at a camera, at a piece of glass, they tend to look dead … When we’re looking at somebody with our eyes, they’re looking at us with their eyes: there is an engagement. It is sometimes a competitive engagement, it is sometimes a friendly one, sometimes a loving one but there is an engagement and it’s reflected in the eyes.

David Goldblatt, 2018 from , David ”Goldblatt: Soweto and Hilbrow [online video], available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMLhkUqQZTU&t=332s MCA Power and agency 16

Why might it be important to consider the relationship between a photographer and their subject?

• How could this relationship affect the meaning of the image? • How might the historical or political context impact the relationship between photographer and subject? • How does this relationship impact the relationship between a photographer and the viewer? • How can the historical or political context of a photo change how a viewer reads a photograph? DIG DEEPER MCA 17

MASKING AND ANONYMITY MCA Masking and anonymity 18

Point your camera at your partner again. This time, ask them to mask or hide a part of themselves in the photograph. Swap roles.

• As a subject, how does being partially hidden make you feel? • If your face is hidden in a portrait, is it still a portrait? • Do you think you can communicate more about your identity by hiding or revealing specific parts of your body? • In which situations do you keep parts of your identity private? What parts of your identity do you reveal? Why? WARM-UP MCA Masking and anonymity 19

David Goldblatt Woman on a bench, Joubert Park, Johannesburg, 1975 silver gelatin photograph on fibre-based paper 40 x 40 cm, edition of 10 Courtesy The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust and Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg and Cape Town, and Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris MCA Masking and anonymity 20

Look at the previous image Woman on a bench, Joubert Park, Johannesburg from David Goldblatt’s series Particulars. What can we tell about this person’s identity from the information in the image? What has been masked?

• Do you think this image reveals anything about the photographer? • Look at the title of the image. What might the title reveal further about the subject and the photographer?

DISCUSSION IDEAS MCA Masking and anonymity 21

“ The camera is a looking device that gives us images, showing us the world from the photographer’s perspective. In response to the scopic power of the camera, have you thought about how hiding from the camera can act as a mode of resistance?

”Cherine Fahd, 2018 MCA Masking and anonymity 22

Cherine Fahd Plinth Piece, study for reclining nude, 2014 c-type 75 x 100cm Image courtesy and © Cherine Fahd MCA Masking and anonymity 23

left: Cherine Fahd Camouflage (chroma inny), 2013 lambda print 50.8 x 37.4 cm Image courtesy and © Cherine Fahd right: Cherine Fahd Camouflage (nose), 2013 lambda print 50.8 x 76 cm Image courtesy and © Cherine Fahd MCA Masking and anonymity 24 “ I was interested in the paradoxical nature of being both absent and present as well as finding ways to visualise a challenge to physical appearance as a mode of interpreting identity.

”Cherine Fahd, 2018 MCA Masking and anonymity 25

A photograph can only show how you appear: as a body. Do you think a photograph can depict some inner reality? If yes, how?

• How effectively do you think a photograph can show who you are? Why? • How effective do you think a photographer can be in capturing your true self? • Can you think of a photograph that you think depicts the most authentic version of you? Why did you choose this photo? DISCUSSION IDEAS MCA Masking and anonymity 26 “ My object in portraits is a very simple one. It’s to convey as strongly as I can the presence of the subject, the person.

”David Goldblatt, 2017 from Goldblatt, film by Daniel Zimbler MCA Masking and anonymity 27

When we have the power of depicting the world through a camera, how do we decide what we have permission to reveal?

• Who do we have to seek permission or approval from? • Why do we have permission to reveal more about some subjects than others? • Do you think photographers have a responsibility to their subject and audience? Why? • What ethics do you think a photographer needs to consider in DIG documenting? DEEPER • Can you be an impartial observer? MCA 28

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