The Erna and Victor Hasselblad Foundation has selected South African photographer David Goldblatt to receive the 2006 Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography, it was announced on Thursday.
The prize will be presented at a ceremony held in Göteborg, Sweden, on November 25, 2006. A new exhibition of David Goldblatt’s work, curated and organised by the Hasselblad Centre, will be opened in conjunction with the ceremony.
The Foundation’s had decided to award Goldblatt the award as his ”is a life long observation of the social and political developments within South African society.
He has been concerned to explore the relationship between individual subjects and the structures within which they live.
”His interest in the violent history of his country, and his awareness of the symbolic significance of architecture, form an extraordinary statement both personal and socio-political.
”Photography, in the words of David Goldblatt, reveals ‘something of the subtlety and ambiguity of our shifting and frequently contradictory perceptions of reality’.
”His acute historical and political perception provides a sense of the texture of daily life, and an important piece of missing information regarding life under apartheid in South Africa.” – Sapa