Magnum Print Room, London
23 September - 6 November 2009

Rich and Poor confronts the myth of the American dream with the harsh economic reality of the American class system. Yet this documentary is more complex than that, for by including the protagonists’ voices in the form of text on his images Goldberg represents not just the polarity of class but the particularity of human experience.

Intimate portraits taken in private spaces these pictures could only have been produced with a level of trust built up over time. Goldberg was invited into his subjects’ homes, and in some cases their bedrooms,...