Divided states: A review of Jim Goldberg's Rich and Poor.

Abstract

Exhibited as part of the States of America collection by the Nottingham Contemporary are selected works from Jim Goldberg’s Rich and Poor, a photography series which aimed to capture portraits of Americans from a variety of backgrounds during the period between 1977 and 1985. Using both black and white photography and captions handwritten by the images’ subjects, this review argues that Goldberg succeeded in not only the lives of the subjects individually, but also a wider image of the economic and social disparity of the country at the time, a divide which is arguably equally present today.