Raised by Wolves
Jim Goldberg is an American documentary photographer, who creates long-term and heavily weighted collaborations with overlooked, neglected or underground/outcasted populations. His work is politically charged, often questioning and investigating the “American Dream” and other relevant myths about class, status, and happiness.
Goldberg’s ‘Raised by wolves’ both documents and follows the lives of adolescent runaways living on the streets of San Francisco and Los Angeles between 1987 and 1993. In creation of the project, Goldberg photographed and interviewed his teenage subjects, their social workers and the police. This adds dimension to the troubling picture of American street life and, adversely, Goldberg’s approach dives into the institutional culture surrounding street life.
Raised by Wolves is a multi-media faceted photo-book, combining photographs, found documents and snatches of poetic handwritten passages about the subjects’ lives and feelings in response to Goldberg’s encouragement. The book’s main narrative focuses on dysfunctional family life in America, about the way teenagers are led astray, how their daring rituals are driven by drugs, violence and lack of affection. Goldberg collected a sprawling cast of characters, though his project particularly focused on the stories of ‘Tweeky Dave’ and ‘Echo’, two deeply troubled yet charming young runaways whose lives became intertwined.
Goldberg describes his book as “a work of fiction that’s completely true,”. The subjects are all real people, the text, photographs and collected items (ephemera) are all authentic parts of their lives, but the subjects repeatedly redirect their anger and frustration through the stories they tell. They’re often half-truths and are sometimes fully fabricated.
Raised by Wolves’ narrative also highlights love and friendship as a key theme. The compassion Goldberg approached his subjects with revealed and reflected the kindness they showed each other, which is often overlooked and blocked out in the average person’s encounter with the destitute. The narrative is gripping, encouraging the reader to question, rather than to judge the lives of the homeless. It challenges the generalisations previously made about these homeless groups in America, in turn leaving the reader with questions about the survival of these teenagers, and what they might be motivated to survive for. This response leads to the questioning of the faults within America’s institutional society that resulted in the fateful lives of these adolescents.
http://cargocollective.com/danielshires/Reflections-on-Raised-by-Wolves