Cory Goldberg

Lives and works in New York, NY

Artist statement

Photography allows me to work at the limits of visual perception—to record events in ways the eye cannot experience directly. A long exposure can accumulate light and motion beyond what we are able to register in real time; a brief flash can reveal what would otherwise pass unseen. These processes move the photograph between recording an occurrence and transforming it. Even as the image approaches abstraction, it remains grounded in a real body and a physical event that occurred in front of the camera. I set parameters and meticulously construct the conditions, then allow forces I cannot direct to shape the resulting image: drops and streams of water on skin, the force of a wave colliding with a body, human forms in motion, intentional camera movement, light drawn by hand, and multiple flashes rendering successive positions within a single frame. Chance is the common denominator across these approaches and is integral to my method. I use these elements to push familiar forms toward a threshold where they remain recognizable but not immediately clear. These individual series are connected through Stil/Moving, the overarching framework for my practice. The phrase describes a condition I return to repeatedly: stillness and movement existing at the same time. The same instability extends to control and chance, clarity and ambiguity, recognition and uncertainty. I am not interested in imposing narratives on the images. In the same spirit, I tend to photograph people without...

Artwork