Jim Goldberg Quotes & Sayings

This was in San Francisco, in 1987. A bunch of kids were camped out in the Riviera Hotel - boy hustlers and their sugar daddy. One boy, Tank, showed us his gun. 'It's not loaded,' he said. He pointed the gun to his head, then out the window, and then to the ceiling. When the gun was pointed to the ceiling, he pulled the trigger and it went off. The gun was loaded after all. — Jim Goldberg

I mean, they say they've gotta change the street kids' lives. Well, that's true. But you can't take somebody from point A to point Z overnight. You can't make me a fucking suburban teenager now, after what's gone down. It'll never happen. — Jim Goldberg

I don't know why he isn't dead, maybe he's lucky. Certainly his physical self is dead. Before the streets, drugs, IV use, and hustling -medically - his body is not right.
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So there is some will to live in him, to pass on his knowledge and good nature. It's a mystery. Dave is an inspiration to people. He is society's throw-away. — Jim Goldberg

[A photograph] is a part of the evidence. I'm not saying it's the truth - it's part of the evidence. — Jim Goldberg

I show Dave the dummy for my book. He reads every bit of writing, looks at every picture, and asks no questions. When he's done, he wipes his hands on the book. — Jim Goldberg

It's always good to find things that you haven't found before. — Jim Goldberg

I'm not a politically radical person. In fact, I'm much more interested in being radical aesthetically. — Jim Goldberg

I have the great privilege of being both witness and storyteller. Intimacy, trust and intuition guide my work. — Jim Goldberg

In order to figure this artmaking stuff out, it's trial and error and experimentation, and takes some time and hard thinking. Putting work out in many forms and stages is an extension of how I see things. I feel the art process is best served when it invites comments and constructive criticism from people. — Jim Goldberg

Before I even took pictures I knew that I wanted to have them as hard copy memories. — Jim Goldberg

The photograph is kind of a proof - a proof that I actually met these people, that they actually have lives, and that they're worth considering. — Jim Goldberg

My only agenda is to bring attention to otherwise ignored and shunned lives. — Jim Goldberg

I use my intuition. I tell my students: use your brains, but also use another part of yourself. — Jim Goldberg

In Europe, I am an outsider. I don't really understand anything that I am seeing. I can be welcomed into people's homes, I can be met with suspicion, I can be taken somewhere else altogether. There is always wonderment there for me, even if the person I am photographing may not see it or be aware of it. — Jim Goldberg

Since 1970, I've been using text and ephemera as well as photographs in order to tell stories of one kind or another. 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. — Jim Goldberg

Every single immigrant is part of a larger history that needs to be communicated in all its ambivalences and complexities. — Jim Goldberg

Quit looking for an answer, Jim. There fuckin' ain't one. Fuck yeah, I'm still looking for God's telephone number. — Jim Goldberg

There are many images which I miss on purpose. I've done too many of them before and photographing them again doesn't change the world, or me. — Jim Goldberg

Dave: 'Will you ever be happy Echo?'
Echo: 'I don't know I haven't tried it yet.'
Dave: 'Let's give it a shot together.'
Echo: 'Let's spread fire instead. — Jim Goldberg