Jim Goldberg’s Rich and Poor (1977-85) is an important body of work within the discipline of documentary photography. This essay will discuss the key theories and informants that are essential in understanding his work and its intentions, and further how they alter the way in which the audience perceives the work and the people in the images. These informants include the photograph as a document, Semiotics, Rhetoric of the Image and relay. In 1977, subsequent to and inspired by his observations of the impact of the 1973-75 recession in the US, Goldberg began creating Rich and Poor by making black and white portraits of people in their homes to show the inequality and contrast between the rich and poor in San Francisco. The body of work explores how the individuals feel about themselves in order to challenge the viewer’s preconceptions, expectations and emotions tied with economic disparity, in order to stimulate social change.
The photograph as a document is something that has existed in and assisted society in many ways for over one hundred years within institutions such as “health, housing, education, [and the] economic condition and moral state of the poor” (Wells 2010:75). It was through these institutions that the photograph was able to exist objectively; to provide information that can be regarded as truthful and factual, providing educational content. This idea of truthfulness and actuality inspired photographers to begin using their images to uncover issues in society in order to “pave the way for social change” (Ohrn 1980:36). For example, Thomas Annan’s work as the first photographer to capture bad housing conditions of the poor in Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow (1868). The work was used to deliver evidence that could be understood as trusted and reliable, but from a citizen’s perspective to evoke an emotional response. Goldberg’s work is comparable in that it strived to objectively document the lives of the two ends of economic inequality following the 1973-75 recession, where many US citizens fell unemployed and inflation grew. By documenting these lives objectively through photography, Goldberg was able to reveal and expose what people might otherwise not be able to see and potentially change their preconceptions of the emotional effect of the recession and the individuals who suffered.
In many ways, the photograph as a document is trying to escape its institutionalisation, and bare what is hidden from civilians in society. For example, in 2014, Goldberg released a new edition of Rich and Poor, which featured newer, more recent images to show how the disparity in San Francisco is something that still very much exists. By releasing a newer edition, Goldberg reminds us to remain aware of economic crisis and its real, powerful effects on people over time, both in the past, present and certainly the future. This only enhances the viewer’s understanding of Goldberg as a documentary photographer, and of his work being of a truthful, revealing nature.
When relating Semiotics to Rich and Poor and using it as an informant to understand the work, it is important to consider ones’ cultural interpretations of signs in imagery – these being the signifiers and the signified. Bate said, “a visual signifier can have different polysemic signified linguistic meanings, depending on the viewers and their viewpoints.” (Bate 2016:20). Through this, Bate explains that the signifiers mean the same universally, but the signified is a personal and unique interpretation of the signifier based on an individuals’ ideology and position in society. For example, in the photograph signed ‘Linda Brock’, the signifiers include swear words written on the wall, a mattress on the floor, magazines tacked to the wall, and the lack of clothing. In Western culture, these are strong signifiers of poverty.
What is most vital when applying Semiotics to Rich and Poor is becoming aware that the subjects do not always conform to Western connotations of poverty and wealth. These connotations might include sadness or perhaps loneliness, yet Goldberg’s work challenges these ideas that a Western audience might have previously conceived. Understanding that the signified is merely a socially constructed perception of a signifier leads the audience to reconsider their predeterminations; making Goldberg’s work a cause for social reform.
In Rich and Poor, Goldberg allows his audience to reconsider their own preconceptions of economic disparity through Barthes’ Rhetoric of the Image. Bate wrote that, “It is from a particular configuration of such codes (whichever ones are included) that the Rhetoric of the Image determines the range of meaning available from the photograph.” (Bate 2016:24), further meaning that a work cannot be understood in the same way without certain visual codes or signs in the images. In this series, these codes are Goldberg’s use of relay, meaning that “photo and text work together in tandem to create a meaning that could not be made up by each element separately” (Bull 2010:40), something key to understanding much of Goldberg’s work such as Raised by Wolves (1995) and Open See (2009). Goldberg allowed space at the bottom of his portraits for the individuals he photographed to hand-write and reflect on themselves, their lives, how they appear in the image and to “confirm and explore their identity” (Wells 2010:139).
Understanding that relay is potentially the most key informant to Goldberg’s work, and further understanding Barthes’ Rhetoric of the Image, it is clear that the body of work and the individual images themselves would not carry the same emotional meaning and value without the input of the subjects’ thoughts and feelings. Suddenly, by reassigning the authorship of the images through hand-written relay to show the citizens’ perspective, the images become much more personal and thus appear more honest, heartfelt and sincere. With the absence of relay throughout this body of work, the viewer’s preconceptions of poverty and wealth may still exist.
Linda Brock wrote “This picture says that we are a very emotional & tight family, like the three Musketteers [sic]. Poverty sucks but it brings us closer together.” In this photograph, Western connotations of poverty are challenged by the Rhetoric of the Image; her acceptance of her position in society is surprising, and especially her positivity towards it. The text therefore determines the meaning within the photographs and, consequently, our perceptions of poverty.
Goldberg also questions Western connotations of the other end of economic disparity in San Francisco. In this photograph of the Countess, it can be understood from her writing that she is not quite as happy or secure as is first expected. She wrote, “ I keep thinking where we went wrong. We have no one to talk to now, however, I will not allow this loneliness to destroy me – I STILL HAVE MY DREAMS. I would like an elegant home, a loving husband and the wealth I am used to.” By including this poignant passage from the opposing end of disparity, Goldberg reinforces that his audience should not presume an individuals emotional security based on their economic status.
Overall, once the viewer has identified Rich and Poor as an example of the photograph as a document, they are able to interpret the body of work as an objective piece, and thus it becomes a much more genuine and truthful body of work. In this case, the photograph acts as a document by providing the viewer with information that they would otherwise not necessarily have access to. Goldberg does this, too, by reassigning the authorship of the photographs to the subjects within them through the use of Barthes’ Rhetoric of the Image, and more specifically, relay. The hand-written passages add a certain sincerity to the images, evoking an emotional reaction and, further, a social reform that alters the way in which the viewer percieves the work, reacts to the people within the images, and, certainly, their social and economic status. This is achieved, again, through understanding the signifier and the signified within the theory of Semiotics. The audience is able to understand that signs within images are uniquely interpreted and shaped by the viewer’s own individual ideology and position in society, further creating preconceptions of a person and their life experiences. Through understanding these key theories within photography and how they perform as indispensable informants to Rich and Poor, the viewer is able to explore new avenues of the work and the intentions behind it, in order to revise their own predeterminations of economic disparity. Thus, Jim Goldberg’s Rich and Poor is a motivational body of work for social reformation.
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