Oude Leeskamer and Goodman Gallery are pleased to present In Situ, a group exhibition with work by David Goldblatt, Jabulani Dhlamini, Lindokuhle Sobekwa, Ruth Motau and Nicola Brandt. Each of these artists offers a unique lens on architecture as both a vessel and residue of the cultural, political, and social forces shaping our environments. By reimagining the built world not merely as physical spaces but as complex, storied landscapes, the exhibition examines how structures embody and influence the ideologies and histories that define them.

A relentless visual archaeologist, David Goldblatt spent over half a century photographing South Africa’s landscape, uncovering the embedded narratives of spatial politics, ideological constructs, and social struggles that define the country. His work captures buildings and infrastructure not just as physical entities, but as manifestations of social divisions and cultural histories, illustrating how architecture reflects – and often reinforces – the complexities of power and inequality.

Similarly, Sobekwa’s photographs delve into the intimate, often hidden corners of his community in Thokoza, revealing the resilience and vulnerability within these spaces. His images transform township structures into symbols of survival and solidarity, documenting the way people shape, and are shaped by, their environment. Dhlamini’s work reflects a meditative exploration of spaces imbued with both personal and collective memory. His photographs convey a quiet, reverential quality, as his images often evoke the solemnity of sites where grief and memory coexist, suggesting that architecture can hold layers of unspoken histories and become a space of reflection and healing for those who encounter it.

Motau’s portraits of urban dwellings and migrant hostels document the transitional lives of migrant labourers navigating identity and belonging in spaces of impermanence. Her images reveal the conditions and challenges faced by these communities, where people live between rooted homelands and urban workplaces, often in overcrowded, temporary accommodations. Her photographs explore how these transient spaces shape lives and identities, while also underscoring the resilience of those who call them home.

Brandt’s work in Namibia addresses the lingering shadows of colonial exploitation, positioning architecture as an echo of both cultural resilience and imposed histories. Her landscapes reflect a haunting beauty, as colonial buildings and infrastructure linger as physical reminders of a fractured past. Brandt’s images invite viewers to consider how architecture bears the weight of historical trauma while simultaneously representing the strength and endurance of those who navigate its legacy.

Together, these artists reveal architecture as more than static buildings; rather, they suggest that architecture is an active archive – constantly reshaped by memory, power, and resistance. In Situ asks us to reconsider the structures around us as sites of encounter between past and present, personal and political. By uncovering these narratives, the exhibition invites viewers to reflect on how built environments influence, and are influenced by, the complex forces that shape human identity and experience.

David Goldblatt (b. 1930 – d. 2018, South Africa), through his lens, chronicled the people, structures and landscapes of his country from 1948, through the rise of Afrikaner Nationalism, the apartheid regime and into the democratic era until his death in June, 2018. In 2023 Art Institute Chicago presented an exhibition spanning Goldblatt’s seven-decade career titled ‘No Ulterior Motive’. An exhibition of the same title travelled to Fundación MAPFRE in 2024 and will make its final stop at Yale in 2025.

Jabulani Dhlamini (b. 1983, Warden, South Africa) is a documentary photographer whose practice reflects on his upbringing in the post-apartheid era alongside the experiences of local South African communities. Dhlamini’s most celebrated bodies of work have focused on key moments in South African history, such as ‘Recaptured’ which looks at cross-generational recollections of the Sharpeville Massacre, and ‘Isisekelo’ which documents the familial impact of land dispossession and ‘iQhawekazi’, which mapped the shifting legacy of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela at the time of her death in 2018. Dlamini has been included in a number of solo and group exhibitions. He is also an alumni fellow of the Edward Ruiz Mentorship programme and the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg.

Ruth Seopedi Motau (b. 1968, South Africa) is best known for her portraits and for her insightful documentation of South African social and political life. Ruth Motau’s 25-year career has focused on diverse activities in the communities where she has lived, in Soweto and further afield. Motau held the position of photo-editor at The Mail and Guardian from 1995 to 2002. She went on to work as photo-editor at The Sowetan from 2004 to 2008 and at City Press from 2008 to 2010. Motau studied photography at the Market Photo Workshop from 1990 to 1993. Her first solo ‘Ordinary People’ which took place in Oxford in 1994. She was also included in the major 2022/3 group exhibition ‘When Rain Clouds Gather: Black South African Women Artists, 1940 – 2000) at Norval Foundation.

Lindokuhle Sobekwa (b. 1995, Katlehong, South Africa) is from a generation of South African photographers born after the first democratic elections of 1994. Through his participation in the Of Soul and Joy photography education programme in Thokoza in 2012, he realised that the medium of photography could be an essential tool to tell stories that concern and interest him. Sobekwa was named an official member of Magnum Photos in 2022 and awarded the inaugural John Kobal Foundation Fellowship. Sobekwa is included as one of four international artists shortlisted for the 2025 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize.

Nicola Brandt (b. 1983, Namibia) is an interdisciplinary artist known for her large-scale photographs, video works, and installations that reflect on themes of power, memory, and positionality. Part of an emerging generation of artists in the country of her birth, Brandt became known for her critical, self-reflexive approach to place and landscape, and her decolonial examination of German colonial history and memorial work.

Brandt has presented her work at institutions including the MAXXI Museum in Italy, the Würth and MARKK Museums in Germany, the Rhodes Trust in the United Kingdom, the Nirox Foundation in South Africa, and the National Art Gallery of Namibia. She is currently working on a photobook with Steidl Verlag due for release in January 2025.