{ Nan Goldin }

After watching "The Ballad of Sexual Dependency" by Nan Goldin, i cried....


Much affected by her life experiences, i started to sympathize people on the edge, the outcast. Burning their life for something they believe in, living life to the fullest. Maybe because in the 70s life was chaotic; drugs, sex and violence....



"The Ballad of Sexual Dependency" (1986) explores relationships and includes revealing images such as Self-Portrait with Brian Having Sex, Nan and Brian in Bed and Nan One Month after Being Battered. It also featured Cookie Mueller, Goldin's good friend who, with her husband Vittorio, died of AIDS in 1989. A series of photographic documentary were shown, they featured Nan Goldin's family, friends and loved ones and her life in the 70s & 80s, one of drugs, sex, violence and lots of gays & lesbians. Many of Goldin's subjects in The Ballad were dead either due to AIDS or drug overdoses. Her works is most often presented in the form of a slideshow and these snapshot aesthetic images, usually made with available light, depict drug use, violent, aggressive couples and autobiographical moments.

Nan Goldin, Self-Portrait

*Born on September 12, 1953, in Washington, D.C, Nan Goldin is an example of an artist who works at the most intimate level: her life is her work and her work, her life. She is the impassioned historian of love in the age of fluid sexuality, glamour, beauty,violence, death. intoxitacion, and masquerade. An uncanny attention and attraction to the drama and the commonplace of life structure her photographs. It is nearly impossible to discuss Goldin's photographs without referring to their subjects by name, as though the people pictured were one's own family and friends. It is this intimate and raw style for which Goldin has become internationally renowned. Her "snapshot"- esque images of her friends – drag queens, drug addicts, lovers and family – are intense, searing portraits that, together, make a document of Goldin's life. Goldin herself has commented on her photographic style and philosophy, saying, "My work originally came from the snapshot aesthetic . . . Snapshots are taken out of love and to remember people, places, and shared times. They're about creating a history by recording a history." Her work continues to evolve with her life. Of this she writes, "My work changes as I change. I feel an artist's work has to change, otherwise you become a replication of yourself." With Goldin's close, immediate style and stunningly beautiful images, there is no threat of her becoming a replication.*

* taken from fabien fryns fine art website