About

ROBERT'S BIOGRAPHY

PRECIS

Robert has continued to search for what gives meaning to life, what counts for others and for answers locked in social, economic, political and cultural assumptions, beliefs and habits. And then, discouraged by the limits of his understanding and answers he has gone on to question the nature of our species. He has gone from studying philosophy to modern European History to Intellectual History. He has gone from being a social documentarist with stills to becoming a still-life photographer specialising in food, to a commercials director to a documentarist with video, to becoming a writer of poetry, plays, essays and novels.

PHOTOGRAPHY

In his early career, Robert worked in New York for three years for many magazines and newspapers (The New York Times Weekend Review and many others), creating photo-essays and stories for articles.
In his last months in New York he was chosen amongst 11 other photographers including Art Kane, Irving Penn and Richard Avedon to provide a photograph revealing love between people and the significances of diamonds. After being flirted with by Magnum, he went on to be commissioned to photograph actors, politicians and others, producing magazine, book and record covers. He pioneered a new style of advertising and editorial food photography; conceived and shot ten award winning books called the ‘PEOPLE WORKING SERIES’ published by Penguin revealing the life of the working classes in different industries; he conceived and shot a book about unemployment called DOWN THE ROAD which was published with the support of John Berger, and was a major contributor to THE AMERICAN AIR AND SPACE and the NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM catalogues.
He became Chairman of the Association of Photographers and created the Association Awards, which have since become the most well-known and respected photography awards in Britain, for which he received the Chairman’s Award in 1996. He trained several well-known photographers: amongst them, Fay Godwin, Eamon McCabe, and Robin Broadbent.

Robert’s photographs have been exhibited at the following:
The Half Moon Gallery/ London (one person show)
The Serpentine Gallery/ London
The Photographer’s Gallery/ London (one person show)
The Midland Group Gallery/ GB
The Side Gallery /Newcastle (one person show)
The Hayward Gallery/ London
Victoria and Albert Museum/ London
Barbican Concourse/London (one person show)
The First Georgian State Film and Theatre Festival/Georgia
Battersea Art Centre /London (one person show)
The White Space/ Dorset (one person show)
The Battersea Arts Centre exhibition of David Glass theatre work
Greenham Common Gallery/GB (one person show)
Study Gallery for Modern Art/ Poole, Dorset (one person show)
The Silk Mill for the Frome Festival / Frome, Somerset (one person show)
Bridport Art Centre/ Dorset for HOME (The Demise of the English Industrial Working Class
Bridport Art Centre/ Dorset for DEMOCRACY IN A SMALL TOWN
Bridport Art Centre/ Dorset for EXILE – A Mind in Winter
semi-permanent exhibition of still-life work was at the Lighthouse, Poole Dorset
and numerous art centres and galleries around Britain.

In spring 2023 he published a book called TRANSIENT LIGHT, FLEETING TIME, which is a thought-filled volume of 50 illustrated essays.

He is currently working on a series of illustrated filmed talks (videocasts) called THINKING ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY and on another book called LEVELS OF INTIMACY.

FILMS

In his third year of university Robert attended The London School of Film Technique. In the mid 1980s advertising agencies began to use him to make TV ads associated with his photographic campaigns for them. Eventually he was the Director of Photography and director of over 900 commercials across Europe and the Middle East, winning numerous awards. BEG!, his first feature film was chosen as Best of the Festival at the Edinburgh Film Festival and selected for Sundance, amongst other festivals.

“When Beg! was released on DVD this was the reaction from a French cinema magazine: ‘this film is a pure work of art’… the colours are gentle – even the red seems soft’ ‘the lighting is sublime’…’the decor exudes personality – they seem to sigh, die (or breathe) of melancholy and pain…if you’re going to watch the film, leave all sense of logic behind you…let the images take you, in the hypnotising effect of director Robert Golden…the atmosphere sticks to your skin and your spirit… a total success….”

Since 1998 he has written and filmed 40 documentaries concerned with culture, the arts and social/ political problems, winning awards and seen by millions of people around the world. For his commercial work he has won 3 Cannes Lions, a New York Film and TV Award, many other awards especially in Italy and has been featured in Spots, Campaign and other advertising media.
A documentary called CANDLES AGAINST THE NIGHT has been used to raise awareness of the problems young people face in post conflict zones. It has been shown at DAVOS and in the Houses of Parliament. It is about a group of teenagers in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, living in the shadow of genocide, struggling to make a life through cultural engagement. Robert’s documentaries have won several awards and have been selected for numerous Festivals around the world. In early 2019 he finished a film called EXILE – A Mind in Winter, as part of an exhibition planned with two painters, Ricky Romain and Cedoux Kadima.

The first digital opera (“a lockdown world premiere”)created at the start of Covid, made to highlight the incarceration of the human rights activist Osman Kavala in Turkey. 840 million people were aware of the film through a powerful media campaign.” The Observer

This contemporary work was composed by Nigel Osborne and made by Robert Golden)
“Persuasive musically, and technically a coup, it’s opera with a cause: the 10-minute work is being shared through Amnesty International, PEN and Open Democracy.” The Observer

In 2021 he finished his feature documentary THIS GOOD EARTH which is a beautiful, emotional and entertaining film providing a unifying view of the destruction of landscapes, animal and plant species, the trap farmers are caught in and the life-threatening use of manmade fertilizers, toxins and huge soil crushing machinery, the relationship between the long food chain of corporate power, political failures with the resulting rise of obesity, non-communicative diseases, poverty, early deaths, and the denial of basic human rights and everything resulting in the global climate crisis. It’s a hard-hitting film, offering solutions told by bakers, farmers, doctors, scientist, health officials and leading experts on food security, human rights and justice.

“Beautiful” “Emotionally charged”
“Comprehensive and Clear”
“Great ideas wrapped in a beautiful film”

His latest documentary, called BELONGING/BECOMING, is about the needs and views of young people from across Europe and the US.

“…so refreshing to hear young people talking about their opinions, hopes and fears…”
“This is precious!” “Amazing” “We loved it!”

WRITTING

Robert had written 3 plays, a poetry cycle, a novel, an epic poem directed by him for the theatre, 8 feature film scripts, 4 books about photography and another about unemployment. He has also illustrated over 30 cookery and other books. He has written numerous essays on photography, culture and politics (see www.rjgolden.substack.com). A ROLE FOR ARTISTS IN TROUBLED TIMES was published in January 2019, composed of 5 essays. He followed that with A ROLE FOR ARTISTS – Post Covid. His first novel, A FORGETTABLE MAN (available on Amazon and all ebook platforms), about a photojournalist, has been published to excellent reviews. He has just finished writing a set of essays called WHY? about how our society is structured politically, financially and culturally. He has also just finished the first draft of a novella called AFTER THE DEBACLE – a Novella of Love and Rage. Now he is developing several film and exhibition concepts.

CONVERSATIONS, TALKS AND WORKSHOPS

Over the last several years Robert has been asked to mentor and to speak increasingly frequently about his films and his knowledge about photography. In 2024-5 he will be offering several courses and talks. If you wish to sign up, please go to the HOME PAGE on this website if you want news about these and other things.

CHARITABLE WORK

He was on the board of the Helen Bamber Foundation and for many years helped the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture to raise substantial funds.
For 12 years he worked closely with young people in Srebrenica, helping them to workshop film and photography practice; he has also worked with the European youth project – The Complete Freedom of Truth, running workshops about democracy, neoliberalism and the purpose of art in a challenging world. In the summer of 2019 he taught a group of grad students in Sarajevo how to use film as a tool to change society under the auspices of Leeds University and Kings Collage.
He with several other people, runs a charity called HOME IN BRIDPORT which serves working people and donates time photographing, filming and designing graphics for various causes.
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