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Jen Goldberg will tell you she doesnt really remember a time before she was comfortable with a camera in her hand. Ive always been a photographer, says the Westport resident. My mom was an artist. I couldnt draw, so I learned to take pictures.
Goldberg was quick to pick up the craft. When I was 16, I got a work study job doing sports photography for a local paper in New York City. An impressive gig for a high school student, even one raised in Manhattan. I took as many classes as I could. I just wanted to learn.
She spent the next decade doing just that. After graduating from New York Universitys Tisch School for the Arts, she worked in photography production in the Manhattan fashion scene.
Im a people person, she laughs. So I really love to photograph people. Everybody has a story. I love to help tell peoples stories through picturesthe little expressions they have and moments they share. I like to take the kind of pictures of people that when they see them, they remember what they were thinking and feeling.
Goldberg calls her pictures lifestyle portraits, little moments captured on film that show how you interact with your family, the looks you give them.
For Goldberg, the payoff always comes from the feedback she gets from the families she photographs. Its always the women who are the most cautious [about being photographed], she says. When they see the photos and say to me, I cant believe you captured this, or I never like photos of myself and I absolutely love these, thats pretty special.
Goldberg has also created a special photography session for little girls that she calls "Pretty in Pink. And since the time of this interview, she's launched a special photography session for boys, aptly named, "Calling All Boys."
The girls get to put on bracelets, tutus, wings, sunglasses, she says. I have all this stuff in big buckets on the floor in the studio and they just dig in and play. Its like a party.
To be able to get people to be comfortable so theyll show me that side of themselves is really the best part of what I do," says Goldberg. "That's how I help people tell their stories.
To see more of Goldberg's work, vist her website.
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