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
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