The Hasselblad award was presented for the 26th time on Saturday 25 November 2006. The award winner, David Goldblatt, received the award from Dr. lennart Nilsson, the first Hasselblad Award Winner at a ceremony at the Göteborg City Theatre. The award sum was SEK 500,000. In conjunction with the ceremony an exhibit of the award winner’s work, David Goldblatt – 2006 Hasselblad award winner, opened at the Hasselblad Center at the Göteborg Museum of Art.
The Foundation's citation:
David Goldblatt‘s work 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.” The reason why Goldblatt has been chosen for the Hasselblad Award is because his photographs are acute in historical and political perception. They provide a sense of the texture of daily life, and an important piece of missing information regarding life under apartheid in South Africa.
