Nan Goldin is an American photographer that kept a visual diary showing relationships and personal history. She also shows a sense of travel and ‘The decisive moment’ just as Henri Cartier-Brasson did in his work. She is a very ‘snapshot’ moment orientated photographer and her work tends to have a very sexual theme to it throughout, showing relationships and bondage. Artists that did similar work to Nan Goldin are George Brassai and Diane Arbus; and she created visual links with a lot of William Eggleston, Juergen Teller, Wolfgang Tillmans, Corrine Day and Robert Franks’ work. She is very diaristic and shows a very reportage theme, also showing a sense of pain. Her photography is very gritty; it is really intimate but also sad at the same time, showing a lot of emotions.
When Goldin was 11 years old, her older sister commit suicide at the age of 18. This had a massive effect on her life and she first started photography when she was 18; she has said “If I photograph someone enough, I won’t lose them” as a result of her sisters suicide which encouraged her photography. Nan wanted to “Never lose the memory of anyone again”.
Nan first met her friend David when she was really young; his opened up a new relationship for her as David was gay and did a lot of Drag, which she took a lot of pictures of which were linked to her dream of becoming a fashion photographer. After spending so much time with people dressed in drag, she felt like a drag queen herself. “I didn’t see them as a man dressing like a woman, I see them as a third gender that made sense” she quoted. Her and David shared clothes, lovers, drugs, money, literally everything.
Goldin was in a very destructive relationship with her lover Brian – he read her diary and battered her because of what she wrote, then destroyed the diary. She documented this by taking pictures of herself, showing just how badly she was hurt so that she would have a reminder there to never go back to him. I think this really influenced a lot of her work, but gave her the confidence to forget that part of her life and carry on.
Golding moved to New York in the 70’s, were life was very sex-orientated and there was night life no matter what you were. She quoted that “Taking pictures allowed me to be in control and out of control at the same time”.
louise huber 