Raised by Wolves

by Jim Goldberg (Photographer), Philip Brookman (Editor)

10 years in the making, the book collects a sprawling cast of characters, and focuses particularly on the stories of Tweeky Dave and Echo, two charismatic but deeply troubled young runaways whose lives became intertwined. Goldberg’s documentation couldn’t help but capture his subjects’ destitution, but it surfaced their humanity, too. Their personalities, their histories, and their dreams were given equal attention, and were often presented in their own words. The tenderness with which Goldberg approached his subjects revealed the tenderness they showed one another—all too often obscured in the average person’s encounters with the homeless.

Genres: Photography, Art, Nonfiction

315 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1995

About the author

Jim Goldberg’s innovative and multidisciplinary approach to documentary makes him a landmark photographer and social practitioner of our times. His work often examines the lives of neglected, ignored, or otherwise outside-the-mainstream populations through long-term, in depth collaborations which investigate the nature of American myths about class, power, and happiness.

A prolific and influential bookmaker, Goldberg’s recent books include Ruby Every Fall, Nazraeli Press (2014); The Last Son, Super Labo (2016); Raised By Wolves Bootleg (2016), Candy, Yale University Press (2017), Darrell & Patricia, Pier 24 Photography (2018) and Gene (2018).

Goldberg has exhibited widely, including shows at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; SFMOMA; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Corcoran Gallery of Art; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the Yale University Art Gallery. His work is also regularly featured in group exhibitions around the world. Public collections including MoMA, SFMOMA, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Getty, the National Gallery, LACMA, MFA Boston, The High Museum, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Library of Congress, MFA Houston, National Museum of American Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Goldberg has received three National Endowment of the Arts Fellowships in Photography, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Henri Cartier-Bresson Award, and the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, among many other honors and grants.

Goldberg is Professor Emeritus at the California College of the Arts. He is represented by Casemore Gallery in San Francisco. Goldberg joined Magnum Photos in 2002.

Reviews

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that I hope to own one day. It was the book that transformed my entire life and gave me my future career.
This book follows the life of a group of street kids for a few years. Complete with a tremendous amount of photographs, notes, and candid confessions from the homeless children, it is absolutely magnificent.
Very sad, very shocking at times, but definitely a read for people who want to be aware of the not so bright side of homeless youth.
I am very thankful to have had the chance to come upon this book when I did, and am glad it has shaped my life.

[Chris Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

Devastating. Beautiful. Bewildering.

Simply put, this book is art.

The images match the text-- spontaneous, brutal, and unwavering recording of the lives of street kids. Runaways. Gone is the romanticization and the exploitation, which is what almost any other person would do with this project. Goldberg does not have an agenda to preach, outside of making even the most destitute among us humanized (but not sympathetic).

What I appreciate the most is the fact that Goldberg lets you draw your own conclusions without hiding his own interests and frustrations. He is a character in the book, but a very minor one.

The churning self-destruction are bewildering, and the natural reaction is to try to figure out why. This book is not about finding the why, though. In fact, when the kids try to give explanations for why they are the way they are, it almost always turns out to be lies. And that is life-- something that is not neat, explainable, and wrapped up in one season. Goldberg presents to us something that is real, difficult, and ever-present no matter how much we turn away from it. Addition, hate, crime, self-loathing, desperation, and the way the weak are used by the powerful, it is all plainly seen here.

[Mralexdrysdale · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must own this book. This is my favorite kind of photography: the images are by themselves are interesting enough to stand on there own, but together make a personal narrative of a few individuals while still serving as a concise and accurate survey of a broad sub-culture. I wish I had the balls to do this kind of work.

[Halliday · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Back at Flynn squat a power struggle is evolving. Psycho puts out cigs on his body, then sticks safety pins through his skin. Wea is licking Psycho's wounds. Psycho and Riff Raff have taken over the camp. No one wants to argue with Psycho."

[Opie]

the weight of this book is crushing. can be read more than once. but must be read straight through.

[Summer Patterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book and found it after researching a talk show I'd watched as a child featuring one of the main characters. I'm so happy to have found it! I devoured it and could not put it down. It is a real look at street kids who are struggling to survive after being abandoned by their families or running away from an abusive situation. It really opens your eyes to what some children have to live through, and it is heartbreaking but also enlightening.

[Jackson Coates · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most fulfilling experiences I've ever had with a piece of art. It opened my eyes to a completely new way of telling a story. A beautiful, beautiful project and quite possibly one of the best artistic experiences I've ever had.

The first 5 pages alone, show just how much emotion and life can be contained in a specific image.

[Lamont Khoza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alongside Nan Goldin, Goldberg is one of those photographers who just enter the game and completely revolutionize it. Leaving photography and the reader forever changed.

It's probably the few pieces of media that truly change anyone who engages with it.

[Grace Stafford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really wonderful book of photography that's only enhanced by the intimacy Goldberg achieved in the interviews with his subjects. Highly recommend, especially as a retrospective to this era.

[lola · Rating 5 out of 5]

My only little tiff with this book is that there is very little cross-referencing done on the visual information in the photos and the extensive text. So you'll be reading about a location or a person and only half of the time will they be identifiable/identified in a photo.

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one to leave around when you have kids in the house as it is a mixture of photos and transcripts of a decade-long interaction the author had with street kids in LA. Disturbing and thought-provoking.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book never gets boring. my copy is falling apart because i look through it so much.

[Buddy Engelhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing

[Sam Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

brilliant photodocumentary of runaway kids in LA. beautiful layout kind of like a scrapbook. incredible interviews, this book made a huge impression on me.

[Zara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this by accident and ended up thouroughly enjoying it.