• Essay question:

How do Justine Kurland and Jim Goldberg portray childhood differently through their work?

• Opening quote

‘Photographs really are the experience captured, and the camera is the ideal arm of consciousness in its acquisitive mood.‘ Susan Sontag (1971), On photography.

• Introduction (250-500 words): What is your area study? Which artists will you be analysing and why? How will you be responding to their work and essay question?

For my project I am looking at childhood versus teenage life and how differently our lives look now in comparison to then. For my inspiration I looked at the artists Justine Kurland and Jim Goldberg and their contrasting portrayals of child/teenhood.

• Pg 1 (500 words): Historical/ theoretical context within art, photography and visual culture relevant to your area of study. Make links to art movements/ isms and some of the methods employed by critics and historian. 

For my first paragraph i will research the differences between being a child and being a teenager and speak about how life changes between them stages.

• Pg 2 (500 words): Analyse first artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.

Justine Kurland is an American photographer known for her pictures of people in the American wilderness. This includes her work on runaways and her best selling book Girl Pictures which has a running representation of childhood and particularly girlhood and growing up as a female. She presents childhood as wild and exciting through her various images of runaways portraying their freedom and there is an infectious sense of nostalgia that these images provide. Personally i feel a connection to this book as I see myself and my friends represented through her portrayal of girlhood and the adventures/experiences that follow growing up as a girl.

• Pg 3 (500 words): Analyse second artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.

Jim Goldberg’s work follows youths on the streets of California portraying the more dark and disturbing ways in which people have to live. In comparison to Justine Kurland, his images show the rougher side of life and portrays childhood/growing up as more of a day to day struggle for the subjects in his images.

• Conclusion (250-500 words): Draw parallels, explore differences/ similarities between artists/photographers and that of your own work that you have produced
• Bibliography: List all relevant sources used