COLOGNE.- Zander Galerie opened an exhibition of photographs by Santu Mofokeng and David Goldblatt, bringing together two of the most important and influential figures in South African photography. Working from different generational positions and with distinct visual sensibilities, both artists profoundly shaped how South African realities have been seen internationally, contributing decisively to the recognition of South African photography as a major artistic and cultural force.

Santu Mofokeng (1956–2020) developed a photographic practice that moved beyond conventional documentary categories. Closely associated with the South African photographic collective Afrapix from 1985 onward, and shaped through sustained dialogue with David Goldblatt, his work combines visual observation with critical reflection and writing. Mofokeng’s photographs address history and land, memory and spirituality, and the lived aftermath of apartheid, forming an œuvre that is both intellectually rigorous and marked by restraint, attentiveness, and poetic nuance. He played a pivotal role in redefining the possibilities of documentary photography in South Africa.

Born in Soweto, Johannesburg, Mofokeng began photographing everyday life in the townships in the 1970s. He witnessed the country’s transition to democracy, including the African National Congress (ANC) victory in the April 1994 elections and the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as South Africa’s first Black president. From 1988 to 1998, Mofokeng worked as a photographer and researcher at the Institute for Advanced Social Research at the University of the Witwatersrand, where writing became an integral part of his practice.

His groundbreaking project Black Photo Album / Look at Me: 1890–1950 debuted at the 1997 Johannesburg Biennale. His work has been exhibited internationally at institutions including Jeu de Paume, Paris; Kunsthalle Bern; Bergen Kunsthall, Norway; and The Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm, and is held in major collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; MMK – Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; and the Albertina, Vienna.

Shown alongside Mofokeng’s work are photographs by David Goldblatt (1930–2018) from his seminal series The Transported (1983–1986). Goldblatt established a photographic language of exceptional clarity and ethical seriousness, examining social structures, power, and inequality through close attention to everyday life. Created during the later years of apartheid, The Transported focuses on Black South Africans commuting long distances by bus between townships and places of work, and is widely regarded as one of his key early series.

Goldblatt grew up in Randfontein, a mining town west of Johannesburg, and sustained a lifelong photographic engagement with South Africa’s people, landscapes, and built environment. Throughout his career, he returned repeatedly to the region around Johannesburg and to colonial and civic architecture, treating these sites as records of social and historical conditions. Many of his photographs are accompanied by extended captions that anchor the images within specific temporal and social frameworks. The Market Photography Workshop, which he founded in Johannesburg in 1989, became a crucial platform for the education of younger generations of photographers.

Goldblatt received the Hasselblad Award in 2006, followed by the Henri Cartier-Bresson Award in 2009, the ICP Infinity Award in 2013, and the Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture in 2016. His photographs have been shown internationally, including at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and at Documenta in Kassel, and are held in major public collections such as Tate Modern, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Art Institute of Chicago; and the Yale University Art Gallery.