Bowdoin College Museum of Art Healing in Apartheid South Africa: Michael Goldblatt's Photographs of the Alex Clinic

In the 1980s, South African urban areas were in open revolt against the apartheid government, which had institutionalized a system of racial segregation and political separation from 1948 to 1994. One of the centers of this urban rebellion was “Alexandra Township” (or Alex), an area adjacent to the wealthy suburbs of Johannesburg. The Alex Health Clinic, which served the community of Alex and was supported by South African and international donors, employed photographer Michael Goldblatt to take photographs that would publicize the clinic’s operations.

Healing in Apartheid South Africa shares these striking photographs for the first time in a museum setting. Taken over the course of 10 years, they capture the wide-ranging township activities alongside the social and political turmoil within which the nurses, doctors and workers of the Alex Clinic struggled to create a community of care, activism and education for the patients and people of Alex. The exhibition illustrates various moral and ethical questions regarding the provision of health care and the publicizing of such aid projects. In documenting this moment and place in South African history, the photography of Michael Goldblatt also highlights larger concerns that transcend this history, including access to health care, navigating political conflict, providing aid, confronting inequality, and the power of photography as activism.

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This exhibition is curated by David Gordon, Roger Howell, Jr. Professor of History, and students in his spring 2026 course After Apartheid: History and Identity in Contemporary South Africa: Evan Carr ’28, Caitlin Cowan ’26, Avery Cutler ’26, Alec Davis ’28, Thetis Fourli ’26, Jake Reiser ’28, Hazel Sheahan ’28, Lilianna Spartz ’28, Erik Garcia Valtierrez ’27, Elliott Werner ’29, and Collier Zug ’28.

Curation was informed by discussions with Michael Goldblatt about his experiences as a photographer and examining his notes written about his experiences and the people he worked with at the Alexandra Health Clinic.

Curatorial support was provided by Anne Strachan Cross, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow. Financial support is provided by the Stevens L. Frost Endowment Fund.