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

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

The definition of nostalgia, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is ‘a feeling of sadness mixed with pleasure and affection when you think of happy times in the past’. I correlate the feeling of nostalgia with my childhood memories and teenage life/coming of age. My images which, although there’s joy, have a more serious and downcast feel to them which is a representation of the way in which the naivety of childhood, that allows us to live freely and happily, has worn off and as we grow older the reality of life has began to kick in. Two photographers that inspired me are Justine Kurland and Jim Goldberg as I resonate with their portrayals of being a teenager, all though not to the same extremes, the overall aesthetic features of their work somewhat resembles my idea of being a teenager and both artists’ work corresponds with the theme of nostalgia.

Justine Kurland is an American photographer known for her pictures of people in the American wilderness, specifically young girls as she said they had a perpetual state of becoming. 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.

Kurland would find her girls while touring the US and recruit them as her models for her shoots.

‘I could find girls wherever I stopped, but they went home after we made photographs, while I kept driving’ – Justine Kurland

Kurland further explains how the girls were very cooperative to be in the photos and even helped her stage the images.

‘the girls were enthralled just by being together and making pictures’ – Justine Kurland

Her book presents childhood as wild and exciting through her various images of runaways portraying their freedom, while the images also exhibit an infectious sense of nostalgia. Kurland was inspired by the girl’s stories of adventure and captured their different narratives. 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.

Her work is a mixture of documentary and staged documentary style images enabling her to portray girlhood accurately and also have to ability to exaggerate it to whatever extent she pleases. In my opinion her images are more of a fantasy portrayal of teenage life/girlhood as she captures the good more than the bad representing the runaways lives as exiting and happy almost as if they were living in a utopian world.

However, Jim Goldberg’s work follows youths on the streets of California portraying the more dark and disturbing ways in which people have to live. As a outsider himself, Goldberg empathised with their situation and searched for an understanding of what he had witnessed during that time. Goldberg witnessed the chaos and carnage of street life which ultimately became the source of inspiration for him to create his book ‘Raised By Wolves’. The book consists of photographs, sections of conversations, drawings and handwritten notes which present the true characters he captured more transparently, giving anyone who looks at his work a sense of familiarity as if they knew them on a personal level.

‘I wanted to look at those people who were outsiders, like I was’ – Jim Goldberg

He delves into topics such as the class system, power and poverty in America but coming from the perspective of the poor and powerless which was a new viewpoint and unusual to see. He showed the side of life that was ignored and gave these teenagers the voice that he lacked during that period of his life. He focused specifically on two main characters, Tweaky Dave and Echo. Although these kids were extremely troubled, their personalities proved too large for Goldberg to ignore. Goldberg created a close relationship to the teens allowing him to follow them whilst documenting their lives and experiences. This meant the book became a mixture of documentary and narrative style fiction that illustrated the close up reality of their situations. His aim was to uncover and discuss issues such as neglect and abuse that lead to these teens living on the streets. Regardless of the negative themes discussed, there is also an ongoing theme of love, friendship and chosen family as these kids care for one another and have joined together to create their own kind of family set up.

Although his approach may seem exploitive, he created genuine relationships with the kids and they offered their assistance with things such as writing the handwritten notes and doing the drawings. He approached this project delicately with sensitivity and a sense of empathy, provided from similar personal experiences, and was careful not to overstep boundaries. However, once the relationships began to form the kids became so comfortable to the point that they would give him advice on what to capture which goes to show they were just as engulfed in the project as him. The project became a collaboration between photographer and subject as they gained respect for each other in the process. He also gave all of his subjects a copy of their pictures allowing them to see what they were helping him with as he was aware they weren’t likely to have any other ways of accessing their work.

Although both projects focus on the subjects of teen runaways and homelessness, the work and stories behind them are completely different. Overall, Justine Kurland’s work is more of a idealistic perspective of being a runaway and she portrays their lives as joyful and exciting by exaggerating the idea and stereotypes of girlhood through her staged images. Whereas Jim Goldberg’s work delves into the dark and disturbing realities and highlights the struggles those teens face as he follows them, documenting their reality. 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 conflict for the homeless teenagers. Although both groups of people are runaways, Jim Goldberg’s work shows a much more sinister and emotive depiction of these people. I also discovered that both sets of images have a sense of ‘truth’ but in different ways. Despite the fact that I think Justine Kurland’s images are an exaggerated portrayal of girlhood, they do serve to present the emotions accurate to that time of our lives. She presents the girls as powerful and fearless but also sensitive and fun and there is an overall sense of unity and togetherness which is a feeling I think is very relatable to girlhood. On the other hand, Raised By Wolves shows ‘truth’ through documenting the lives of the kids and including the good and the bad while allowing them to take control over the project to ensure they are accurately depicted. This ensured that the book was an honest and real demonstration of their lives.

Bibliography:

Justine Kurland, Light Work, 2018, https://www.lightwork.org/archive/justine-kurland/#:~:text=Justine%20Kurland%20is%20known%20for,nature%20of%20the%20American%20dream.

Justine Kurland: Girl Pictures, Aperture, https://aperture.org/books/justine-kurland-girl-pictures/

A Completely True Work of Fiction: Jim Goldberg’s Raised By Wolves, Magnum photos, https://www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/art/jim-goldberg-raised-by-wolves/

Raised By Wolves, JimGoldberg, https://jimgoldberg.com/about

Another Look at Justine Kurland’s Girl Pictures, Vanity Fair, 2020, https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/05/justine-kurland-new-book-girl-pictures

Girl Pictures, Lens Culture, https://www.lensculture.com/articles/justine-kurland-girl-picture

Tracing The Roots Of Jim Golderg’s Epic “Raised By Wolves”, Blind, 2021, https://www.blind-magazine.com/news/tracing-the-roots-of-jim-goldbergs-epic-raised-by-wolves/

Justine Kurland on the Girl Picture Problem, Frieze, 2023, https://www.frieze.com/article/justine-kurland-girl-picture-problem