Jim Goldberg

                  Jim Goldberg is an American photographer who was born in 1953. He is best known for photographing subjects that are often neglected and ignored by society. Goldberg has shown in many museums and galleries including: The Photographer's Gallery, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Photographic Arts, Washington Project for the Arts, Nova Gallery, Lightsong Gallery and many more. He has also been the recipient of over 20 grants and awards. He is best known for his books and multimedia exhibits both which typically include text from his subjects which bring a voice to these often silenced subjects.


                Out of all the photographers that we were given I chose Jim Goldberg because I feel like he his work gives me insight into a subject matter that I may not otherwise know anything about, unless I saw his photographs. I feel like his work really epitomizes the idea of documentary photography because he records the lives of these people which tell us a story just by looking at their everyday lives. Goldberg has a way of photographing these people without othering them because when you look at his work his subjects seem very comfortable. It seems as if Goldberg is not even there and this makes me feel like I am getting an inside look on the lives of these people. I admire this about his work because it is something that I feel like I am not yet able to accomplish with my work.

               In Jim Goldberg’s work, “Rich and Poor” he photographs his subjects in their environments. By showing both drastic ends of the social ladder his images create a juxtaposition that make their social situations seem even more apparent. If you were to show one of Goldberg’s images of a poor subject and only that single image it would not be very powerful. Now if you were to place that same image right next to one of Goldberg’s that showed a rich subject than the image of a poor subject would be highlighted and their situation would seem so much more obvious. This also works the other way around and the rich subjects situation seem more apparent. I am not sure if his project started out just showing one social class or the other but if it did then he made the right choice by showing both. I am not saying I would not be interested at all in his work if he just showed just the rich or just the poor but I find the contrast of the two social classes one of the most interesting things that is driving his work.

              Jim Goldberg’s “Rich and Poor” is a body of work that shows images of people in their homes paired with comments from them. Many of his images are of people that are typically neglected and ignored by society but those are also mixed with images of wealth and beauty. I love Jim Goldberg’s work because his work shows something that typically isn’t photographed. I feel like my work can relate to Jim Goldberg’s because we are both doing a similar thing. Although our subject matter may be different we are both still shedding light on things that normally do not get much exposure. My current work looks at probably the most photographed event in our culture. Typical wedding photographs consist of cake cutting and first dances but I choose to show the side that most people never really look at. I showcase the aftermath of weddings when the guests start to leave and all that remains is empty chairs, half eaten plates of food, and an overall messy and not so perfect scene. Weddings are supposed to be a perfect scene with every little detail thought out and every little thing in its perfect place but how long can this last? These images are used to talk about a subject that our society tends to try and silence which is divorce. The photos show that after the wedding everything starts to fall apart and we have to pay for someone to clean it all up for us and when things start to shut down everyone seems to leave. So I use my images of the wedding to speak about how divorce is something that is very common in our society and after the wedding is when the real work begins, the wedding is just a show.

              So even though Jim Goldberg is showing environmental portraits of the rich and poor we are doing something similar. We both have an interest in showing some of life’s unpleasant topics for everyone to see. Even though these ideas that we are shedding light on are not the most pleasant ones I believe that they still have their place in our society and they should not be ignored. Just because some people decide to ignore that these topics exist does not mean they don’t. I am not choosing to show perfect photographs of a beautiful cake and Jim Goldberg is not choosing to show your typical mantle worthy portrait does not mean they should not be viewed. By viewing photographs like our people will begin to think a lot more critically about certain issues as opposed to the perfect images that we typically see hanging in someone’s living room.
 
 
http://www.olicito.de/blog/photographer-spotlight/145-rich-and-poor-photographs-by-jim-goldberg
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Goldberg

Project Update

I am once again doing my "After the Wedding" project.  It was my original idea but I was having difficulty gaining access.  Now I have a friend who has let me tag along on his wedding shoots so I am back to that idea.  If nobody remembers I will refresh everyones memories.  The idea is to document weddings when they are winding down and aren't so picture perfect as well as the empty spaces that the wedding once occupied.  I will use these images as a social commentary on marriage in America.  I have another wedding this weekend so any feedback would be very helpful!

Progress

CCP Visit

                          

I have always loved Lauren Greenfield’s work so it was great to see some of her prints in person.  Her bodies of work, Fast Forward and Girl Culture have always been appealing to me because the images really speak about the issue of body image and growing up as a young woman in a highly critical community.  She doesn’t even need to speak about the work because it speaks for itself.  The image that really caught my eye at the print viewing was the one of the young girl weighing herself in the bathroom.  It caught my attention right away because just seeing this very thin and young girl standing on this scale with an audience in the background was very disturbing to me.  The way the image is composed you look at the young girl right away because she is in the foreground dead center.  Also the image is lit so you can see every little detail in the image and it is obvious to me that each detail plays an important role. 

This image is talking a lot about body image but I mainly see the different influences that are being placed on this young girl.  First you have what I think are the parents and sister watching her weigh herself.  It is obvious that this is a normal occurrence in their home and the parents seem so serious and concerned that they will not like the number that presents itself on the scale.  I imagine that the sister is next to weigh herself because she is patiently waiting with an expression that seems so sad.  Another influence I noticed is the stack of magazines off to the left.  It is as if they are part of the audience as well and adding more pressure to measure up to them.  Their clothing seems very odd and out of place to me as well.  Their parents seem to be in their pajamas still so I wonder if the girls are ready to go to an event.  Maybe it is the final weigh in that they have been preparing for in order to measure up to the other girls who will be attending.  Overall I find this image disturbing and saddening to know that this is actually happening. 

I think Greenfield created this work to put a spotlight on the young girls who are being influenced by their families and society to measure up to some sort of social norm.  By putting these images out there maybe she is hoping that people will see them and understand that Hollywood is creating a standard that many young people are struggling to reach.  I think she just wants to bring awareness to this very sad and disturbing issue.

I think by seeing this work it has shown me how important it is to gain the trust of your subjects.  If she hadn’t spent countless hours with these girls and their families then she would have never been able to capture the images she did.  In her work you cannot even tell that she is there but she starts to become part of the scene to them.  It has made me realize that in my project I need to do the same thing because people are letting me into their lives and until I gain their trust it will be obvious that they are uncomfortable in the photographs.

A Picture Worth A Thousand Words

War Photographer

The images that the photographer captures are so full of emotion and sadness but I do not know how he does it. He talks about how he has to gain the trust of his subjects in order to photograph them at such a difficult time and it is apparent that he has. When photographing them you would never be able to tell just by looking at the images that someone were that close to them. I found myself being annoyed at first thinking he was intruding on these peoples lives. It was so difficult to understand how someone could just stand there and photograph people who were obviously going through a devastating loss. To just stand there and snap away seemed insensitive to what these people were experiencing. As the video progressed I found my opinion starting to change and see that what he was doing may not be as horrible as I had originally thought.


After hearing him speak I began to understand him more. Even though he was given permission by these people to document such a difficult time in their lives I think it would still be hard to capture these moments. I would find myself wondering constantly if this is the right thing to do and I am not positive that I would be able to handle what I was seeing. I feel as if I would find myself emotionally attached to the people and I am not sure if they would help my work or take away from it. He mentioned in the video that during times of war things change. If this were any other time he would not be able to just go into someone’s home and photograph them dealing with their loss. I am not sure that I completely agree with him. I feel like in times of war it may be easier because these people are experiencing such devastating loss that they don’t notice as much the things that are going on around them. At this point they are just trying to survive. I am not saying experiencing a loss in any circumstance is easy but I feel like things dramatically change if you are still surrounded by the very things that caused your loss to happen in the first place.

Some of my favorite images were the ones of poverty in Indonesia. It blew me away seeing how these people live everyday right along side of the train tracks. There was one particular image of a little girl sweeping the tracks with a broom that really made me think about their living situation. This is their home and they are making the best of it. In the video they talk about how these people are not drug addicts but they are families who are trying to provide for one another and not having to pay rent will help them even more. It is not that I haven’t experienced seeing poverty before, because I have, but never of the magnitude that he photographed in Indonesia. It really opened by eyes up to what they have to live through everyday and they still seem to have a positive outlook on life and are grateful for the little that they do have.

Toward the end of the video they show him talking about pain. He compares it to asking a marathon runner if they feel pain. He replies, of course they do but its all about how you can handle that pain that matters. By hearing this it made me realize that he does care about the people and the situations that he chooses to photograph. After doing it for so long he has come to find a place that helps him deal with all the horrible things he witnesses. After watching the whole video and hearing him speak I really have a great respect for those who put their lives and sanity on the line to document such horrible things such as war.

Final Project Update

I am still trying to get my project approved through the human resources department at the hotel I will be shooting at.  Hopefully I will have some images up by the end of this week.