Jim Goldberg, an American artist and photographer, is known for his work with marginalised communities. His photography, particularly his photobook ‘Raised By Wolves‘, reflects the neglect and abuse these struggling communities face, and how they as people respond to it in an unforgivingly realistic and direct manner. I want my personal study to portray a similar feeling, through images of people I’ve met travelling and while I was homeless, the main difference being that it reflects more my own perception of them, and what they did to help or support me.
Goldberg’s iconic style features monochrome portraits accompanied with handwritten texts from his subjects, telling Sean O’Hagan in 2009, “There’s a thread that runs through all the work that is to do with bearing witness, the photographs are about asking questions, though, not answering them.” This means that Goldberg’s work is more about being an observer of this suffering than a narrator, almost. It turns his images into a more personal account of each subject, allowing them to narrate their own stories, while Goldberg just provides them with a platform and the means to do so. I find this idea to be intriguing, although it wouldn’t necessarily work for this project as a lot of the people I was with I am unable to currently get in contact with them for one reason or another.
Goldberg states his photobooks, ‘Rich and Poor‘, ‘Raised by Wolves‘, and ‘Candy‘, as part of a trilogy, “All three books are about where I grew up, and how I grew up. The books represent a lot of the same themes about race, class, age, love, lust, betrayal–they’re tied together.” He told Magnum Photos. Similarly, I want this to be an underlying theme in my own work, that I create a narrative that hints at how I myself have lived and grown up, whether using subtlety or being direct.
Sources
https://www.dobedorepresents.com/artists/jim-goldberg
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/jul/03/jim-goldberg-rich-and-poor-photography
https://www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/art/jim-goldberg-raised-by-wolves/
George, this post has the making of really good piece of work, but you’re cutting it short. There are some relevant quotes from sources used to provide context to your own interpretation, but you must improve the following:
1. Produce moodboard of images from his seminal project Raised by Wolves
2. Choose one key image and provide detailed analysis, using matrix: TECHNICAL, VISUAL, CONTEXTUAL, CONCEPTUAL
https://www.photopedagogy.com/photo-literacy.html