Nan Goldin

In Goldin’s book ‘The Ballad of Sexual Dependency’ she explores the idea of sexuality as an addiction; her photographs can be used to observe the ways in which people form relationships, different aspects of relationships and differences between intimacy and primal sexual desire. Her images depict a range of scenes from relationships between friends to explicitly sexual photographs all of which are genuine and unadulterated. It is clear that this was one of Goldin’s main aims as she says that she wanted to “make the record of (her) life” (Goldin, N. (1989), p.145) however rather than have a diary or account that someone would be able to re-tell or edit she wanted “a record of what things really looked like and felt like.” (Goldin, N. (1989), p.145)
All of Goldin’s work can be interpreted to have subtle messages and metaphors hidden within them to make the viewer think; whether she meant these messages to come through or not is irrelevant as her work has just the desired level of ambiguity to make the images fascinating and enjoyable to examine. Dramatic lighting, colour, composition and body language are all used as devices to inflict a strong impact on the viewer and at the same time the scenes are very meaningful and intensely emotional giving them a sense of depth. All of these photographs are very controversial and of acquired taste which is something that makes Goldin very interesting as an artist as she took pictures of her day to day life and she took them for her own enjoyment rather than to please her audience. These photographs could be seen as an invasion of privacy but equally an insight into an artist’s life and her relationships with her friends and with her boyfriend that otherwise would not be seen. Goldin has captured reality at its most interesting, passionate and unnerving yet beautiful to create thought provoking images.


-‘The Ballad of Sexual Dependancy’ – N. Goldin