Jim Goldberg is a Magnum Photographer who’s work primarily focuses on documenting the poor, neglected or those who are rejected/ failed by society. He works a lot with combining image and text which is often hand-written by the subject on top of the image. Combining text/ spoken words with images has been a prevalent theme throughout all of my projects during first year, in Environment I got quotes from each subject about the environment I photographed them in, in identity I got each of the subjects to hand write a statement which I presented alongside their portrait and in the individual project, I spoke to the Sisters to gather quotes to use in my book. This meant that for my individual project it feels right to continue and build upon this theme. I want to take inspiration from Jim Goldberg and make the presentation of the image and text more cohesive by having the subject write on the images but also present the text by photocopying it next to printed out images etc instead of a digital outcome.
One of Goldberg’s most recognised works is his book ‘Rich and Poor’ which is filled with photographs of people in their home which is accompanied by hand-written statements about their lives. He has also produced similar series to this in a nursing home with photographs accompanied by hand written statements from the subjects who live there.
Something which I really like about the inclusion of hand-written text is the quality it adds to the image, it allows the viewer to connect with the subject more and makes what they’re writing cohesive with the image. It allows the viewer to see deeper into the subject’s psyche. Also as seen in the image above, the hand written text adds a sense of charm to the image as the Childs hand writing is scrawled and obviously child-like compared to the mothers. Text also adds context to the images, for example in the first image presented above, the subjects backstory and pity is expressed. Although her expression is one of pity, if the image was not accompanied by the statement we would not know why/ or we may think this expression could be to chance.
Another approach he takes is getting the subject to write on top of the images as seen below:
I like this approach as well as it gives the image dimension through adding this extra layer of coloured text.
A more recent project of his is called ‘Gene’ this is a photo book based on Gene who lives in an assisted care facility and it documents him reflecting on his past life prior to moving here. It shows portraits of him now vs old photos from his life alongside hand written text.
It documents Genes current daily life whilst living in the assisted care facility, Goldberg documents details such as his food which is something I would like to do in my project based on my Grandad.
This layout above is particularly appealing to me, I like how it seems unplanned and homemade yet is still extremely visually appealing. I plan to experiment with image and text laid out in a collage form and photographed from above for my final images for this unit.
Overall, I think that Jim Goldberg will be one of the largest inspirations behind this project. I want to try his style of collaging but put my own spin on it to make it personal to me and my grandfather.
Ellie Thomas Reflective Journal 