Waterlelies bij Shewasaulu, Zuid-Afrika 1968

Editor: Here we have "Water Lilies near Shewasaulu, South Africa," a photograph by Willem Jacob van den Berg from 1968. The twin images of a pond feel quite still and contemplative to me. How do you interpret these understated snapshots? Curator: These photographs, particularly considered within a larger photographic album, tell us a great deal about how South Africa wanted to present itself in the late 1960s. Does this imagery speak to any specific political narratives to you? Editor: I suppose that pristine, untouched nature would play into an idea of a land ready for… development? Or perhaps projecting an idyllic view to distract from social issues. Curator: Exactly. Images like these were strategically deployed. How might the artist's choice to focus on such serene, natural scenes in South Africa be read against the backdrop of the apartheid regime? Editor: Perhaps it’s highlighting a national beauty while conveniently ignoring the human landscape—a kind of visual erasure? The water acts like a mirror, reflecting everything except the reality of the lives of most South Africans. Curator: Precisely. This album normalizes a specific experience and idealizes the South African landscape while omitting other realities. The selection of what's included, and pointedly what’s left out, is revealing. These images served to cultivate a specific external, and internal, image of the nation. Editor: So even something as seemingly simple as a landscape photograph can be loaded with socio-political meaning. I'll definitely be thinking about context more actively now. Curator: Thinking about images as social constructs is crucial. There's always a narrative being woven, whether intentionally or not. It fundamentally alters how one understands visual culture.