Street Map (#9) Possibly 1987 - 1994

Jim Goldberg made this gelatin silver print, Street Map (#9), sometime after his birth in 1953. What grabs me first is that Goldberg isn’t afraid of the dark. It's a nocturne. The street markings become a prominent feature, as if some giant has taken a thick brush full of titanium white and marked out a new, abstract composition on the city streets. Look at the way the asphalt is scuffed and marked around the curb where the figure sits. This level of detail invites you in. It’s kind of grubby, you can almost smell the city. Goldberg has that eye, like Lisette Model, for the real, the everyday, the unposed moment. He sees beauty in the raw and unrefined. His pictures are generous, he's not afraid to show you everything.