Robert Golden
Restless and curious, like all great artists, Robert has continued to search for what gives meaning to life, what counts for others and for answers locked in social, economic, political and cultural assumptions, beliefs and habits.
And then, discouraged by the limits of his understanding and answers, he has gone on to question the nature of our species.
This quest has made an uncomfortable life for him, as he has so often found himself in opposition to the imposition of the cultural canon upon him and his work. He has gone from studying philosophy to modern European History to Intellectual History. He has gone from being a social documentarist with stills to becoming a still-life photographer specialising in food, to a commercials’ director to a documentarist with video, to becoming a writer of poetry, plays, essays and novels.
Artist, and activist. Immensely prolific and defying all attempts to categorise his work, writing a profile of Robert Golden to complement these first uploads of his magnificent portfolio is our first way to introduce him to you.
A TREMENDOUS LEGACY OF PHOTOGRAPHY
In his early career, in the 1970s, Robert worked in New York for three years for many magazines and newspapers (The New York Times Weekend Review and many others), creating photo-essays and photographs for articles.
In his last months in New York, he was chosen as one of 12 photographers including Richard Avedon, Art Kane and Irving Penn to provide a photograph revealing love between people and the significance of diamonds.
After being flirted with by Magnum, he then went on to be commissioned to photograph actors, politicians and others to grace magazine, book and record covers.
Unconventional always, he pioneered a radical new style of advertising and editorial food photography; conceived and shot 10 award-winning books called the ‘PEOPLE WORKING SERIES’ published by Penguin illuminating working class life in different industries; he conceived and shot a book about unemployment called DOWN THE ROAD which was published with the support of John Berger, and was a major contributor to THE AMERICAN AIR AND SPACE and the NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM catalogues.
Robert has always wanted to put something back. Moving to the UK, he became Chairman of the Association of Photographers and created the Association Awards, which have since become the most well-known and respected photography awards in Britain, for which he received the Chairman’s Award in 1996. He trained several household-named photographers: amongst them, Fay Godwin, Eamonn McCabe, and Robin Broadbent.
Robert's photographs have been widely exhibited including at The Half Moon Gallery, The Photographers’ Gallery, The Side Gallery, Battersea Arts Centre, Greenham Common Gallery, The Serpentine Gallery, The Hayward Gallery, the V&A, Bridport Arts Centre, and numerous arts centres and galleries around Britain.
He is currently working on a series of illustrated filmed talks (videocasts) called THINKING ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY and on another book called LEVELS OF INTIMACY.
In spring 2023 Robert Golden published a book called TRANSIENT LIGHT, FLEETING TIME, a thought-filled volume of 50 illustrated essays, a copy of which is now in the National Art Library at the V&A and on the shelves of thoughtful, influential thinkers in many different fields. It is now being used in Ukraine to help people understand how to use photography effectively to tell stories.
Robert Golden is also an established filmmaker with award winning documentaries, the subject of a separate blog post here
Follow on Instagram for all launch content and updates @topfotoarchives and @robertgoldenpictures
LATEST BOOK - https://robertgoldenpictures.com/transient-light-fleeting-time/
WEEKLY ESSAYS – read for free - https://rjgolden.substack.com/
FILM WEBSITE - https://this-good-earth.com
