JIM GOLDBERG - FINGERPRINT

Photographer: Jim Goldberg
Publisher: Stanley/Barker, London
Printed in: Istanbul

Year: 2020. First edition, first printing.
Format: Silkscreened box set containing 45 loose-leaf facsimile Polaroids
Box dimensions: 12 × 15 cm (120 × 150 mm)
Language: English
ISBN: 978-1-913288-28-1
Condition: Brand new / As new. Originally sealed and only opened for inspection; no visible defects, marks, or signs of handling.

American photographer Jim Goldberg presents a distinctive photographic object published by Stanley/Barker, London, in 2020. Rather than taking the form of a conventional bound photobook, the publication is conceived as a silkscreened box containing 45 loose-leaf facsimile Polaroids, allowing the images to exist individually as photographic objects while remaining part of a complete sequence.

Goldberg has long been recognized for a photographic practice that combines image, handwritten text, personal testimony, and documentary observation. His work often challenges the traditional distance between photographer and subject, allowing fragments of speech, memory, and lived experience to become inseparable from the photographs themselves. The Polaroid format is particularly suited to this approach, carrying an immediate and intimate quality that emphasizes the photograph as a personal document rather than simply a finished image.

The loose-leaf structure of this edition further emphasizes Goldberg's interest in memory, sequence, and fragmented narrative. Instead of imposing a fixed progression through a conventional binding, the individual facsimile Polaroids can be handled and viewed independently, turning the publication into an object that sits somewhere between photobook, archive, and photographic ephemera.

Produced as a highly limited first printing by Stanley/Barker and printed in Istanbul, the edition quickly became sought after, with the first edition reportedly selling out within five days of release. Its silkscreened box and collection of loose photographic facsimiles make it particularly representative of the contemporary photobook's movement toward more tactile, object-based forms of publishing.

This first edition, first printing is preserved in exceptionally fresh condition. Originally acquired brand new and factory sealed, the plastic wrapping was removed only to inspect the contents. The box and all 45 loose-leaf facsimile Polaroids remain in essentially untouched condition.