Woodland Hills, California, #1 1990

Curator: Today, we're considering "Woodland Hills, California, #1," a 1990 black and white photograph by Jim Goldberg. Editor: It's stark, almost clinical. The image feels oddly isolating. There's a crude arrow pointing towards what seems like…nothing? Curator: Goldberg’s work often delves into the disquieting realities of social inequality. This piece seems deceptively simple but invites probing into domestic spaces. Think about Woodland Hills: outwardly a picture of affluent suburbia. What secrets might lie behind those closed doors? Editor: Right. The arrow feels like a condemnation, perhaps highlighting something that needs attention, a hidden void. The circle is obviously drawn on the image, and suggests that we, the viewers, are being pointed to the void. An uncanny representation of middle-class ennui, or, perhaps, a reminder of an unseen victim within such domesticity? Curator: I read the circle in the context of contemporary conceptual photography as highlighting an absence, directing us to focus on the 'lack'. But considering your iconographic lens, does this not resonate with broader societal trends from that era? A disillusionment maybe, after the aspirational Reagan years? Editor: Absolutely. Arrows and circles, while simple forms, can be imbued with potent cultural meaning. Circles often represent wholeness or the self, but this one is defaced and interrupted, directing the attention to negative space and absence. The arrow can either reinforce that focal point, or express movement, directing the viewers' journey, in which, for the viewers' mind, there are not sufficient clues about how to start or move to give the symbol and meaning in total. This symbol is very specific to 1990 and to contemporary art of its age. Curator: The image leaves much unsaid, a powerful tool of suggestion. Editor: I’ll walk away from this pondering what it is exactly that deserves highlighting in this unsettling domestic scene. Is the photographer using this very simple language as the key to a puzzle, I will need to figure out!