Stewart Washing at Burger King Possibly 1986 - 1994

Curator: I see so much youthful loneliness hanging in the air here. Editor: This gelatin-silver print, "Stewart Washing at Burger King" by Jim Goldberg, captured sometime between 1986 and 1994, offers us a stark slice of life. The monochrome really accentuates the grimness. Curator: Yes, that bleak beauty. The setting, ostensibly a Burger King bathroom, transforms into a theatre of mundane ritual. What is Stewart thinking as he washes—perhaps scrubbing away the grease and the day? The graffiti becomes this cacophony of unseen voices. It's isolating. Editor: Precisely. The labor, the low-wage job, is really underlined by the gesture of cleaning up, and also think of the photographic work behind it; the labor involved, both physical and artistic, in producing the final silver print, too. It's fascinating how much a photograph depends on industrial products like gelatin and silver to really function as it is meant to. Curator: Absolutely, and there is also Stewart in his Burger King uniform. Is it just me or is there a silent, resilient strength radiating through the picture? A stark rebellion even as he follows a script laid out for him. He becomes, in that instant, monumental. The eye lingers; it feels important. Editor: Right! Think about the politics inherent in those industrial settings, those standardized products. And that moment—that instant captured—becomes something to contemplate. You can almost feel the grease in the air! Curator: Indeed. "Stewart Washing at Burger King" becomes more than just a snapshot, it’s a silent scream, a hopeful sigh. Editor: A photograph built by so much invisible work suddenly brought to light. Food for thought, if you’ll pardon the pun!