Introduction
David Goldes is an accomplished photographer who received his MFA from Visual Studies Workshop in 1977. This exhibition features photographs from his student trace in the 1970s and acquisitions in the early 1980s.
These photographs were selected for their particular 1970s subject matter and relation to other work being made at Visual Studies Workshop at this time. Goldes chose to focus on the potential of children and youth engaged in activity in his MFA thesis work. These photographs demonstrate transformative moments of youth in different stages of development. The kinetic nature of a selection of these photographs shows the vigor of younger children, while the more mature subjects are presented as calm, cool, and collected.
These photographs were taken in Rochester, NY, where the Visual Studies Workshop is located, and in Buffalo, NY. Goldes used a Leica M2 camera with a flash to capture these images. Plays of light create images with wide tonal ranges and shift of focus. The daylight and flash combination creates accented subject matter in the foreground. Moving subjects add a dynamic twist to some of the photographs and challenge the notion of the frozen moment on film.
About David Goldes
David Goldes. Portrait from VSW Files.
David Goldes was born in New York City in 1947. He graduated from Visual Studies Workshop with an MFA in Photography in 1978. He had previously received an MA in Molecular Genetics from Harvard University in 1971 and a BA in Biology/Chemistry from SUNY at Buffalo in 1968. Goldes has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including a 1980 Polaroid Project Grant and a 1999 John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. He has shown in many solo and group exhibitions. Goldes’s photography is in collections internationally including the Museum of Modern Art and the Yale University Art Museum. JM
For more information on this artist, including VSW's holdings, please click here.
About the Exhibition
Movement: Selections from the First Decade of the Visual Studies Workshop is an online exhibition showcasing an assortment of over 100 pieces from working artists affiliated with the Visual Studies Workshop in the 1970s. These selected artists demonstrate the early years of a revolutionary new institution. [Read More]
