Black Cat Possibly 1990 - 1994

This black and white photograph by Jim Goldberg shows a young woman and a cat. The girl is holding a cigarette and the cat is perched on her shoulder looking pretty pissed off. I like that this image is a photograph, but it's also a portrait, right? It reminds me of those old master portraits, like a Frans Hals painting. I am thinking about how a photographer makes the same decisions as a painter, like deciding who and what to depict, and how to compose the elements in the frame. Goldberg is making all of these choices. I imagine the Goldberg saw something interesting in this young woman, the way she is staring off into the distance, and the black cat adding this whole other layer of… chaos? I think of photographers like Diane Arbus or Lisette Model, who are also trying to capture something about a person’s inner life. Maybe that's what Goldberg is doing here, too. It is a portrait but also a record of a specific moment in time.