What We Do Not See

I've recently been dwelling on how Johannesburg is a city of extremes and so there are many parts of the city that I haven't seen.

I’ve been thinking about that a lot especially since visiting What We Do Not See at Wits Art Museum. The exhibition brings together the work of David Goldblatt and nine other photographers, exploring Johannesburg through ideas of home, belonging, identity and the people who make up this complicated city.

It was, at times, a difficult exhibition to walk through. Some of the stories that stayed with me were those of immigrants who had come to Johannesburg from other parts of Africa in search of something better. Johannesburg has long attracted people looking for opportunity, but the reality of that opportunity can be very different from the promise. There were photographs and stories of people living in incredibly difficult conditions, often in spaces that felt barely adequate for survival.

What struck me most was the realisation that, for some people, these aren't temporary circumstances. This isn't a difficult few months before things get better. This is where they live. This is where they raise their families. This is their Johannesburg.

It is difficult to comprehend that while my personal experience of this city. My life is entirely removed from that reality.

That, perhaps, is what the exhibition does so well. It makes the distance between Johannesburg's different worlds feel much smaller. The city is deeply divided, geographically and economically, but it is still one city. People can live just a few kilometres apart and experience completely different versions of it.

That isn't exactly a revelation to anyone who lives here. You see the security gates, the walls, the private security companies and the stark differences in neighbourhoods. But there is something different about seeing people's lives documented so intimately. It becomes harder to reduce inequality to an abstract idea when you're looking at the person living it.

The exhibition's title comes from something David Goldblatt was once told by a man who recognised him from television. As the man left, he apparently said: “I understand what you do. You show us what we do not see.”

It feels like an especially fitting description of Johannesburg.

Since moving here, I've become increasingly aware of how easy it is to construct your own version of the city. You can spend weeks or months moving between the same neighbourhoods, surrounded by people whose lives look broadly similar to yours, and convince yourself that you know Johannesburg. You don't.

At the same time, What We Do Not See isn't simply an exhibition about suffering. One of the works I particularly loved was Jodi Bieber's A Love Letter to Johannesburg. After some of the heavier stories in the exhibition, it was a reminder that Johannesburg is not just a city of inequality and hardship. It is also a city that people love.

And I think that contradiction is what makes Johannesburg so fascinating. It can be incredibly difficult to love this place without acknowledging its problems, but it is equally difficult to understand it if all you see are the problems.

Walking around the exhibition, I was reminded that there is beauty here, alongside the chaos. There is creativity, resilience and an extraordinary mix of people who have made this city their home, whether they were born here or arrived from somewhere else looking for a better life.

What We Do Not See runs at Wits Art Museum until 24 October 2026.

Notes from 26° South.