Coming and Going
Jim Goldberg
MACK
Coming and Going is Jim Goldberg’s unique work of autobiography. Since 1999, Goldberg has been photographing his daily life through all its vicissitudes and returning to his studio to re-imagine and investigate these images through a practice of collage, annotation, montage, and reconstruction for which he has become renowned. This book charts a course through the grief following the death of one’s parents, the life-altering birth of a child, the heartbreak of divorce, and the rediscovery of love. Told using a correspondingly tumultuous blend of singular and combined imagery, personal notes, collages, and ephemera, the book captures the bittersweet realities of an individual life while reflecting on the universal, inescapable comings and goings that shape us and the ways we grow to understand ourselves. Familiar from celebrated works such as Rich and Poor (1985), Raised by Wolves (1995) and Open See (2009), Goldberg’s visual language employs sequence and narrative with a feverish intensity. History, memory, and imagination collide in a vividly material practice to which the influences of fiction and film, and the book form itself, are central. Coming and Going offers a fierce, vulnerable, and at times overwhelming account of a life and a search for the elusive universals of experience – an achievement that constitutes Goldberg’s masterwork and a significant contribution to contemporary bookmaking.
Special edition available here
Large format OTA bound paperback
26.7 x 34cm, 360 pages
ISBN 978-1-912339-77-8
September 2023
€85 £75 $85
The signed edition was signed by the artist on press in Italy in June 2023.
‘In the images he’s amassed over a lifetime, Goldberg shows the beauty and sorrow of everyday existence.’ The New York Times
‘Coming and Going brims with energy and life as it tracks the joy of first love, marriage, the birth of his daughter … Goldberg is a master of juxtaposition, both formal and emotional, the result often jolting as well as revealing.’ The Observer
‘His collaging takes readers on a roller-coaster through his life: climbing and then plummeting to leave you giddy, only to slowly ascend and offer a view over the landscape below.’ The Financial Times
‘With his unique technique mixing photos, collages and texts, he creates a vibrant eulogy of the moment, which questions memory as much as history.’ Le Monde
‘Jim Goldberg publishes a resounding and intricate monograph full of emotion.’ El País
‘Sometimes, it’s the details that break your heart … this is what the American photographer manages to [show] with Coming and Going.’ la Repubblica
‘Coming and Going spills open like a thousand-piece puzzle without a box, inviting us to make sense of the frenetic chaos of life without the conventional comforts of the three-arc narrative that defines most autobiographies.’ AnOther
‘Visually it resembles a family scrapbook but feels more textured and alive than static pages, so perhaps it’s more accurate to treat it like a home movie or a spiritual twin to Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun.’ Creative Review
‘This tomb of a photobook is a wonderful combination of visual art and memoir, forging new connections between pictures and words.’ Hotshoe Magazine
‘Essentially a 183-page collage, the book is profoundly life-affirming and also, by turns, gut-wrenching in its depiction of life’s contingencies.’ Ursula Magazine
‘[Goldberg] turns the light on himself … The result is as intricate as it is bold – some parts oozing satire, others daringly vulnerable.’ 032c
‘It’s deeply fascinating what this book does to you. It draws you in, pushes you out again with secrets that we as outsiders cannot understand.’ A Visual Zine
‘Goldberg is fiercely original … Like spending a night with a speed freak – or an artist/autobiographer who doesn’t want to leave anything out. This reader wouldn’t have it any other way.’ Photograph Magazine
‘The intention was to create a book with a cinematic character and the aim of helping the viewer navigate [a] life. He succeeded.’ Il Giornale Dell’Arte
‘[There] are births, deaths, and marriages. There is love, loss, and separation, there is heartbreak and confusion, and the burden of having to deal with the constant emotional turmoil of life.’ pHMuseum
‘Goldberg views photography as a means to both preserve and appreciate the experiences of being human.’ Vigour Times
‘There’s a sense of free association in Coming and Going, reminiscent of improvisational jazz.’ Photobook Journal
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