The exhibition of David Goldblatt, Fifty-one Years, produced and organized by the MACBA Barcelona, is a retrospective presentation of David Goldblatt’s work. Featuring more than 200 images by the South-African photographer, the show reflects half a century of Goldblatt’s meticulous observation of the realities of his country from 1948 until 1999.

Over the years his probings have led to a number of photographic essays from which the present exhibition is drawn. Some of these essays have covered short periods of time and specific places, others have spanned decades and great geographical expanse.

David Goldblatt (born 1930 in Randfontein, South Africa) has been a photographer and writer since the early 1950s, capturing the "structure of things in this country" and trying to describe the signs and architecture of 350 years of white supremacy in South Africa. His photographic work represents the political development of his country from the appearance of the first signs of apartheid in 1951 to its end. David Goldblatt is currently working on a text for the publication of this life's work. “When the book is finished” – as he says – “I hope my obsession with apartheid will also be over. I hope my visionary powers will be sufficient to add something to my archive that I have no idea of ​​yet.”