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Jim Goldberg
Watching Oprah, 2004

Jim Goldberg’s Open See series of 2009 began five years earlier in Greece, where, commissioned by Magnum, he went to document the Summer Olympics. As is typical for Goldberg, he found his subjects on the periphery of the action—in ghettos, refugee camps, and border crossings where refugees and immigrants from war-torn, economically devastated, and disease-ravaged countries in Asia, Africa, and elsewhere were attempting to make a life for themselves. Watching Oprah, shot in Greece, exemplifies Goldberg’s approach to the pictures in Open See: made with a landscape lens that captures both clarity and distance, they are grand in their scope and intimate in their attention to telling details. Here, three men presumably engaged in the activity suggested by the photograph’s title look in three different directions. Where is Oprah?

Artwork Info

Artwork title
Watching Oprah
Artist name
Jim Goldberg
Date created
2004
Classification
photograph
Medium
chromogenic print on aluminum
Dimensions
40 in. × 50 in. (101.6 cm × 127 cm)
Date acquired
2008
Credit
Collection SFMOMA
Accessions Committee Fund purchase
Copyright
© Jim Goldberg
Permanent URL
https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2008.132
Artwork status
Not on view at this time.

Jim Goldberg discusses the larger stories told through his photography practice.See more videos at http://www.sfmoma.org/video

Other Works by Jim Goldberg

See other works by Jim Goldberg

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