Jim Goldberg

Jim Goldberg is an American photographer who uses text over his photos to tell a story of that moment in time, he also used blurring to explain a part of time and uses grids to emphasize the narrative at that point in time, something I have already started to do. I have chosen this photographer because I feel I can follow his work and learn from it.

In this picture Jim has shot an old man in bed and the audience connotes this as he is dying along with the text, the text narrates this moment like a story and almost presents it as a thought track, I like this idea as this acts as a personal story and it is convey in a story telling manner of text, however it is also accompanied with image.  I noticed Jim put this in black and white and for me this represented a sense of truth, also it represented death as all the color and life in the photo has been extracted, this man is giving a brief synopsis of his life within this photo.

This photo has influenced me to scan my handwriting onto a computer and accompany it with a picture to produce a diary like narrative.





In this photo Goldberg is addressing a gay relationship. He again is expressing the though tracks of both men and this photo also mixes in with the question topic of personal comment as they are addressing a popular topic within society which each person holds a different opinion on. This photo has also been put in black and white which seems like a theme within his photography. This photo has made me notice that with each written comment the handwriting changes, this makes the image and situation seem a lot more personal and therefore becomes more truthful and emotional for the audience. I really love this photo as it shows two different sides of a homosexual relationship.

This picture has influenced me to vary handwriting so it seems the photo is a diary and to make it a more personal and interesting story.


 This photo contains two different images and then text which I like, because it isn't an organised grid which helps tell the story of this person, their life wasn't intended to go this way and it is just a mere collection of moments. Goldberg has again kept this in black and white, a common running theme in his work which I admire as he embraces continuity, again this shows to me honesty and being stripped down to the emotional bare. The text is a boy narrating his own story however the pictures which are linked explains the parts of his life which he is explaining.

This photo has influence me to use more than one image in a picture however not in a grid format to represent the mood of a picture or the message in a picture, for example, lack of order and continuity in this picture.

In this picture Goldberg doesn't use his theme of black and white and I like this as it breaks up his work and prevents it from becoming predictable. In this picture he focuses on passiveness in my eyes and this is made clear through the last picture which is a sticker saying "wake up", this is then backed up by peoples eyes drooping, being shut or relaxing. This photo shows Goldbergs personal comment of his country and to me, even though the main focal point middle picture is of a woman, if you follow this grid chronologically the last think you see is the "wake up" sign, this meaning this is the message he wants his audience to take away.

This photo has influenced me to use grids more so in an order that the most important picture lands last to be the lasting effect of the picture.

Overall I really like this photographer and I intend to do a shoot based on his work, with the use of black and white when editing and scanning my writing to the computer to produce a personal narrative, formulating a micro story.