Casper, Peter's Youth Shelter Possibly 1991 - 1994

Curator: It has this immediately evocative, intimate, and stark feeling. Is this the same young person featured in all the other portraits? The visual textures speak volumes, no pun intended, from the bristly rug, to the bare wall. It’s a rather visceral representation of this domestic interior, not exactly pretty, more gritty than glamorous. Editor: You've zeroed right in on the emotional weight, that’s Goldberg’s forte. This black-and-white photograph is part of a series of images possibly captured between 1991 and 1994, it is titled "Casper, Peter’s Youth Shelter." These gelatin silver prints are unflinching studies of at-risk youth in the 1990s, deeply entrenched in their daily reality. The portrait aesthetic grounds it to that moment. Curator: Absolutely, the setting plays a crucial role, but there's something else... A poster of, I believe, Mariah Carey sits perched on the radiator behind the figure on the floor... what a juxtaposition between popular fantasy and lived reality. That carefully taped pin-up offers a telling clue to the boy's yearning, a connection to mainstream culture despite his marginalized position. Even though there are signs of comfort, the details around suggest the living conditions are quite meager. Editor: Material conditions are definitely the focus, that's where it comes into play. Think about how this photo was made and disseminated. Gelatin silver prints, as opposed to digital reproductions today, carried an archival quality—almost enshrining their subject for posterity in contrast with the fleeting experience of youth, or the planned communities of those years. Curator: Very astute, and if you consider it more broadly in the history of visual symbol and photographic symbol at that, then its visual representation here allows him an active part in culture… it almost asks, what dreams do these forgotten ones have? Editor: Considering how many portraits and commissions Goldberg made at the time, his mode of artmaking also provided him visibility and hopefully created access for Casper, even if for only a while. Curator: Indeed. It's a potent image that marries a symbol-rich, yet realistic, visual story of social displacement and human aspiration. Editor: Exactly, one wonders who remembers that poster of Mariah, besides for what it symbolized for one person, at a certain moment in time.