Jim Goldberg is renowned for producing some of the most important photobooks of recent decades. From Rich and Poor (1985) to Raised by Wolves (1995) and Open See (2009), he has immersed himself in marginalised worlds, documenting them with clear-eyed yet compassionate candour. In his own distinct way – using collage, montage, annotation and reconstruction, – he adds layers of meaning and narrative, inviting new connections between photographs and text.
For two decades, Goldberg has also trained his lens on the unfolding landscape of his everyday life. From momentous turns of fate (such as a loved one’s cancer prognosis) to the seemingly tiny details which, as they accumulate, often add up to serious change, the celebrated American artist has chronicled the ebb and flow of the world around him.
With an aesthetic that’s part obsessive scrapbooker and part police investigation board, Goldberg rakes over the photographic artefacts of his life as would a forensic scientist looking for clues and tracing emerging narratives. His latest book, Coming and Going (released in a limited print run this September from MACK and available for pre-order now) is the culmination of this confessional, autobiographical practice. “I started imagining this book in 1999 when I began to look through the piles of photos I had taken compulsively – of every corner of my personal being,” he tells Dazed. “There were mountains of pictures and, at some point, I wanted to begin putting these images together to make sense of them and my own life.”
The title of the book only hints at the vivid sense of loss and grief that sit side by side with burgeoning love and new life on the pages of Coming and Going. “This book spans my father’s disease, the birth of my daughter, the breakup of my marriage, and many things in between, all the way through to the start of another love story,” he explains. “Coming and Going is an outline of my life, a reimagining of my visual and written diaries over the last 20-plus years.” Despite – or arguably because of – the specificity of some of the details in the book and the deeply personal nature of the stories he shares, Goldberg touches on powerful universal truths with his unique combination of frankness and vulnerability.
Visit the gallery above for a glimpse of this anticipated upcoming publication.
Available for pre-order now, Jim Goldberg’s Coming and Going will be released in a limited print run this September from MACK. The accompanying special edition and print are available here.