Jim Goldberg - Rich and Poor

Sean O'Hagan writes in his excellent On Photography column in the quardian on Jim Goldberg's Rich and Poor series which looks at both sides of America's social divide.

Recently, Goldberg has been digitising his huge analog archive, a process that has prompted him to re-edit his older series with the benefit of hindsight. A reworked version of Raised By Wolves, now an expensive collector's item, is promised, but the first fruit of this process is a new version of Rich and Poor (1977-85), which has been out of print since 1985.
Rich and Poor looks at the social divide in 1970s and 80s America in Goldberg's now characteristic style – black-and-white portraits accompanied by handwritten texts from the subjects. The use of ephemera is central to his way of working. "There's a thread that runs through all the work that is to do with bearing witness," he told me in 2009. "The photographs are about asking questions, though, not answering them. I'm not a politically radical person. In fact, I'm much more interested in being radical aesthetically."

You can read the full story HERE. Well worth a read, in particular given the current debate about the perils of income and wealth inequality.