Review 2011

David Goldblatt Dancing-master Ted van Rensburg watches two of his ballroom pupils, swinging to the music of a recording of Victor Sylvester and his Orchestra, in the hall of the Memorable Order of Tin Hats, at the old Court House, Boksburg, Transvaal. May 1980. signed, dated 1980 and with the negative no 3/G3967 on the reverse hand-printed, silver gelatine print, selenium-toned photograph image size: 31 by 46cm Sold R77 980, March 2011 Unlike in some of his earlier photographs which Goldblatt has called ‘encounter portraits’, in the Boksburg photographs “he tried to minimise his presence in the pictures by nearly always using a ‘normal’ lens, avoiding dramatic printing techniques, and ensuring that the people he photographed were not obviously aware of him and his camera”. Rory Bester, ‘David Goldblatt: One Book at a Time’ in David Goldblatt: Photographs , Contrasto, Rome, 2006, page 15. 54