Best 14 quotes of Jim Goldberg on MyQuotes

[A photograph] is a part of the evidence. I'm not saying it's the truth - it's part of the evidence.

Before I even took pictures I knew that I wanted to have them as hard copy memories.

I have the great privilege of being both witness and storyteller. Intimacy, trust and intuition guide my work.

I use my intuition. I tell my students: use your brains, but also use another part of yourself.

My only agenda is to bring attention to otherwise ignored and shunned lives.

Since 1970, I've been using text and ephemera as well as photographs in order to tell stories of one kind or another. There's a thread that runs through all the work that is to do with bearing witness. The photographs are about asking questions, though, not answering them.

The photograph is kind of a proof - a proof that I actually met these people, that they actually have lives, and that they're worth considering.

There are many images which I miss on purpose. I've done too many of them before and photographing them again doesn't change the world, or me.

This was in San Francisco, in 1987. A bunch of kids were camped out in the Riviera Hotel - boy hustlers and their sugar daddy. One boy, Tank, showed us his gun. 'It's not loaded,' he said. He pointed the gun to his head, then out the window, and then to the ceiling. When the gun was pointed to the ceiling, he pulled the trigger and it went off. The gun was loaded after all.

Dave: ''Will you ever be happy Echo?'' Echo: ''I don’t know I haven’t tried it yet.'' Dave: ''Let’s give it a shot together.'' Echo: ''Let’s spread fire instead.

I don't know why he isn't dead, maybe he's lucky. Certainly his physical self is dead. Before the streets, drugs, IV use, and hustling -medically - his body is not right. [...] So there is some will to live in him, to pass on his knowledge and good nature. It's a mystery. Dave is an inspiration to people. He is society's throw-away.

I mean, they say they've gotta change the street kids' lives. Well, that's true. But you can't take somebody from point A to point Z overnight. You can't make me a fucking suburban teenager now, after what's gone down. It'll never happen.

I show Dave the dummy for my book. He reads every bit of writing, looks at every picture, and asks no questions. When he's done, he wipes his hands on the book.

Quit looking for an answer, Jim. There fuckin' ain't one. Fuck yeah, I'm still looking for God's telephone number.