David Goldblatt: In Boksburg: Books on Books No. 7

David Goldblatt's "In Boksburg" stands as one of the most important observations of a middle-class white community in South Africa during the apartheid years. Published in 1982, it presents an accumulation of everyday details from the community of Boksburg through which a larger portrait is revealed of white societal values within a racially divided state. "Blacks are not of this town," writes Goldblatt. "They serve it, trade with it, receive charity from it and are ruled, rewarded and punished by its precepts. Some, on occasion, are its privileged guests. But all who go there, do so by permit or invitation, never by right." This facsimile reproduces all 71 black-and-white photographs as well as Goldblatt's eloquent introduction to the work, and noted writer and editor, Johanna Lehan, contributes a contemporary essay written for this volume.