Jim Goldberg | In The Open See

Exhibition Dates: September 10 - October 29

Opening reception: Saturday September 10, 2-5 PM

In order to mark the occasion of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, the Hellenic Cultural Heritage Society commissioned twelve photographers from the Magnum Photo Agency, to create a portrait of modern-day Greece. This commission, titled Periplus, was the genesis for what would become an extensive and personal project for Jim Goldberg, who chose to document the diverse immigrant and refugee communities of Greece. This project focuses on the insurmountable difficulties these peoples face; their dreams for a better future; and the things they must do to survive. Despite the harsh realities they endure, theirs is a story of hope and heroism.

Throughout his career, Jim Goldberg has consistently undertaken long term and in-depth collaborations with mostly invisible or misrepresented groups of people. Past projects have included: indigent hotel residents and the wealthy in San Francisco (“Rich and Poor,” 1977-85); homeless youth in Los Angeles and San Francisco (“Raised by Wolves,” 1986-95); the elderly (“Nursing Home,” 1985-86 and “Hospice,” 1992-93); and ethnic groups in America (“57/78/97,” 1999). Since 1999, Jim Goldberg has been using his visual and written diaries to develop a semi-autobiographical body of work, tentatively titled, “Coming and Going.” His photographs have raised pressing questions about class, youth, family, aging, race, as well as looking at pervasive forms of social and spiritual poverty, and the beauty and complexities of human lives. For over twenty-five years Jim Goldberg has expanded a style of experimental story telling, consistently contending with the limitations of documentary photography, employing words, sound, and personal affects to bridge the silence of portraits and inform images of place or person.

Jim Goldberg received his MFA in photography from the San Francisco Art Institute. His work has been exhibited extensively in North America, Europe, and Asia in both public and private institutions. His photographs can be found in the collections of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Whitney Museum of Art, New York, NY; and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, amongst others. In addition, Jim Goldberg has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including three NEA grants, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Engelhard Award.