Post-documentary art

Exercise 47 - listen to Jim Goldberg talking about 'Open See' and his exhibition at the Photographers Gallery. Look at his website re the portfolio and reflect on how this works as a documentary project within a gallery space.

Still taken from the Vimeo interview Jim Goldberg - "Open See" 

The selection of images shown in the video are more diverse than can be seen on this particular section of wall (image above). The significant variation is size of the images, does not appear to have any relevance to the importance or impact of either the artists narrative or the individuals personal journey.

In the video, Goldberg specially talks about the photograph of 'the boy crossing the river' (right hand side of the still above) and shares information re the power plant (obviously, just out of shot) and the pollution of the river - dead fish. I find this strange because clearly this image does not communicate the 'real' situation - so why show this photograph?

The portfolio is about the "2004 Olympics in Greece" and Goldberg's brief was to focus on the sub-culture created - the illegal immigrants that arrived for the work. Whilst the video is short (3.5 minutes) it provides an interesting commentary and shares some of the thought processes of the photographer. The 'section' of gallery we can see in the video does not show any written description to support the portfolio, however, Goldberg states (in an interview with the Guardian, November 2009) that "since 1970, I've been using text and ephemera as well as photographs in order to tell stories of one kind or another."  In addition to this, a number of the images have text written on them - the story of the individual in their own words - giving the portfolio a very personal feel about it. No doubt this level of engagement with the subjects makes it much easier for the audience to gain a complete and informed understanding of this body of work.

Without the necessary 'words' I believe it would be very difficult to effectively communicate this type of storytelling documentary.

I think this may work very well as a documentary project in a gallery space, but I would like to see it for myself.


The Open See website is very different, the images scroll across the screen and the viewer has no say in what happens - you have no control over the speed, you cannot stop or pause the scrolling, you cannot click on an image to enlarge it! The site 'happens to you' almost as though the photographer is showing how life happens to these 'dispossessed' people.

I am less convinced about the website, I find the site frustrating, even the instructions are totally abstract - I accept that I may be missing the point completely....