John Edwin Mason: Documentary, Motorsports, Photo History

David Goldblatt: ICP Cornell Capa Lifetime Achievement Award, 2013

There's no such thing as "the greatest photographer in the world," but, if there were, it would be David Goldblatt. Goldblatt is also something of a paradox. How is it that someone who has been honored so often by so many is still relatively unknown outside of his native South... Read more →

Convergences, 6: Margaret Bourke-White & David Goldblatt Photograph Some Afrikaners

Margaret Bourke-White was already a Life magazine legend when she photographed some Afrikaner men on horseback. Despite her fame and her accomplishments, she was out of her depth. While technically accomplished, the photo is politically naive. Twelve years later, when the great South African photographer David Goldblatt made a similar... Read more →

Photobooks and Narrative: My (Slightly Flawed) Phonar List

Late last week, Jonathan Worth, who runs Phonar [fo-'när], a free and open undergraduate photography class, at Coventry University, in the UK, asked a number of writers and photographers to put together a list of photo books that are “notable/ inspiring/ seminal/ provocative, in [their] narrative structure/approach or perhaps in... Read more →

Review: "Darkroom: Photography and New Media in South Africa since 1950"

South African photography is hot -- at least, in the United States. This summer, not one but two New York museums have mounted major exhibitions of works by South African photographers. A monumental David Goldblatt exhibition is on view at the Jewish Museum, while a smaller Zwelethu Mthethwa show is... Read more →

Rediscovering Poor Whites in South Africa: Deja Vu (All Over Again)

Update, 23 October 2010: I've just posted a longer look at the poor white phenomenon in South Africa, and, especially, at the way that they've been photographed. You can read "Poor Whites and Photography in South Africa, the Backstory," here. Update, 25 June 2010: The New York Times is the... Read more →