Born in September 12, 1953, Nan Goldin, with official name Nancy Goldin, is one of the most celebrated photographers in the history of American photography. The artist’s works mostly explores the bodies of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender (LGBT) (Goldin, 1995). The larger content of her works have also reportedly focused on the HIV crisis, moments of intimacy, and the opioid epidemic. One of the most notable artistic pieces that Goldin ever produced is The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, which she designed in 1986 (Weinberg & Robinson, 2005). The art illustrates the post-Stonewall subculture of gays, and also documents the photographer’s family and friends. Goldin, who is a bisexual lives and works in Paris, Berlin, and New York City.
Goldin’s Early Life
As mentioned earlier, the photographer was born in 1953 in Washington, D.C., where she spent her early life. However, they later moved with her middle-class parents to the leafy suburbs of Lexington in Boston (Goldin, 1995). The artist had a Christian background since her parents were Jews. Goldin’s father was an economist who worked in a broadcasting industry before joining the Federal Communications Commission, where he also served as the chief economist. At her tender age, the renowned photographer was exposed to different harsh episodes of life ranging from sexuality to strained family relationships. As a young girl, Goldin watched her parents fight constantly over her elder sister, who finally committed suicide at the age of 18. At this time, Goldin was barely 11 but she recounts in one of her interviews that she see and internalize everything that happened around her (Goldin, 1995). According to her, Goldin had a strong feeling that her sister’s death was largely contributed by her sexuality. During that time, that is, in the mid-1960s, sexuality was a major thing and the female genders that were sexual and angry were frightening to the society. Such traits were also deemed to be outside the range of socially acceptable behavior. Therefore, to Goldin, her sister’s sexuality, followed by its repression contributed a lot to her destruction.
It is also imperative to add into the account that the environment where the celebrated artist lived significantly influenced her choices as she grew up. After the demise of her sister, Goldin quit their home and moved to Lincoln, where she got admission at Satya Community School, which was at around 13-14 years old (Goldin, 1995). During this time, the photographer had already started smoking marijuana and dating older men of her age. Later in 1968, one of the staff members at Satya Community School introduced the artist to camerawork. At 15 when she was still battling with the trauma from her sister’s death, Goldin used photography and camera to cherish the relationship she had with the people whom she photographed (Goldin, 1995). Besides, she also realized the value of her camera and used it as a political tool where she gathered important and hidden information to the public. An in-depth study into Golden’s early life shows that Andy Warhol’s films, Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin, Jack Smith, and Federico Fellini, were some of her early influences (Goldin et al., 1986).
Goldin’s Career life and Movements
Majorly moved by the cinema verite, and completely cognizant of the art of Larry Clark, who was an American photographer, Goldin decided to venture into photography in 1971. Later in 1973, she published black-and-white images of transsexuals and transvestites. In 1974, she enrolled at the School of Museum and Fine Arts in Boston, where she studied arts (Goldin, 1995). While studying, Goldin turned to making large portraits of her life, where she made a number of color transparencies of her friends and herself sitting in her bed, injecting themselves with drugs, engaging in sexual plays, or recovering from physical violence. Goldin’s involvement in this hermetic world was later manifested in a sequence of a narrative diary of the strongly colored but unfocused transparencies arranged as a slide show and named The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (1981). Followed by a musical score that integrated reggae, opera, blues, and rock, the presentation was at first shown in nightclubs before it was taken to different galleries. The artist continued to work on this work throughout the early 1980s and later reproduced it in form of a book in 1986 (Goldin et al., 1986). A section of Goldin’s diary was driven by the need to acknowledge her extended family, which she moved to live with after running away from her biological parents (Goldin, 1995). The only way through which the artist hoped she could hold onto her friends was photography. The photographs in the artist’s diary show the transitions she went throughout her life. In one of her interviews, she claimed that, “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” (Goldin, 1995). The majority of the subjects in Ballad, however, had passed away by 1990s. Goldin lost these friends either through AIDS, or drug overdose (Zuromskis, 2013).
Since 1995, the artist’s work has incorporated a wide array of subjects. For instance, her subject matter has included a combined book projects with Nobuyoshi Araki, who is a Japanese photographer; the uncanny landscapes; New York Skylines; her love, Siobhan; her parenthood as well as family life (Weinberg & Robinson, 2005). In 2000, Goldin had an injury on her hand and since then she has been retaining less ability to turn it as compared to how she used to in the past. In 2006, the artist opened her exhibition of Chasing a Ghost in New York City. In fact, that marked the first installation when Golding included moving pictures in her photography. The presentation was not just a fully narrative score but was also a voiceover, which included a video and slide presentation of Sisters, Saints and Sybills. The art narrated the story of the photographer’s sister Barbara how she struggled with life and ultimately made up her mind to commit suicide and how Goldin coped with this trauma of losing her sister throughout the production of several narratives and images. The photographer’s work are further developing into features of cinemaesque, showcasing her gravitation towards working with films (Weinberg & Robinson, 2005). Besides, the artist has undertaken fashion photography in commercial scale, especially for the label of Australia with Scanlan and Theodore’s 2010 campaign during Spring/Summer.
In a speech that Goldin delivered in Brazil in 2017, she made it open to the public that she had been fighting addiction of opioid and she was in her recovery stage by then. Grounded on this addiction, the artist had set up a campaign against drug use, which she called ‘Prescription Addiction Intervention Now’ (PAIN). The campaign aimed at pursuing activism on social media directed against the Sackler family for their participation in Purdue Pharma who manufactured OxyContin. The artist claimed that the campaign aimed at contrasting the contributions of the philanthropist to universities, museums, and art galleries without taking responsibility for the opioid crisis. It should also be remembered that in 2018, Goldin organized a protest at Dendur’s Suckler Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The protest wanted the museums and other institutions of cultural exhibitions to refrain from accepting money from the Sackler family. It is also important to add to the account that at some point, Goldin’s photos moved from portraying the scenes of dangerous abandonment of the youth to scenes of family life and parenthood in progressively global settings. The artist currently works and lives in London, Paris, and New York City. In March this year, the clothing brand Supreme threw a collaborative range with the photographer as part of their 2018 collection of Spring/Summer. The collection consisted of t-shirts, sweatshirts, and jackets in different colors with various designs bearing the title “Misty and Jimmy Paulette”, “Nan as a dominatrix” and “Kim in Rhinestone”.
Man and Woman in Slips (1980)
In Goldin’s diary, the photograph of a Man and Woman in Slips shows the actual experience taking place in another photo titled Empty Bed. In fact, this is the actualization of the intimate and raw aspect of any relationship. Apparently, in this photo, the images of the characters are not so clear as compared to the other pictures in Ballad’s collection. The blurred picture of the performers in this photograph probably tells the audience that the relationship that these people have is not necessarily dependant on the identity of either of the couples. Moreover, the dark lighting of the photo gives the viewers the impression of something devious or mischievous going on. In normal settings of photography, relationships are defined by the gender roles of the individuals within the photograph, something that also ought to be evident when it comes to sex. Even so, the image in Man and Woman in Slips blurs the identity, therefore, not giving the audience that chance of seeing the half-naked bodies and the clothes that the characters are putting on.
The photograph also exposes the audience to different ambiguities, particularly in terms of the nature of the biological sex between the subjects. One fundamental fact within the photograph is seen from the mirrored dresses that the characters put on. From the dresses, it is not easy for the audience to decipher the role that each of the subjects play within the photograph. Furthermore, the stillness and the physical embrace in the picture further worsen the situation since it focuses on redefining the intimacy of the emotions between the characters. Being that larger part, if not all of the audience are already aware that the artist is a bisexual, it is easier for the viewers to digest the sexual complexity in relationship during this era. Based on the title of the photo, even without seeing the real pictures in the photo, the audience may easily preempt what is in the photo. The blurred color with a clear title of the art creates suspense in the mind of the audience, wanting to connect the title and the picture image. Ideally, it is a complex scenario, which leads to a redefinition of the roles of each gender in terms of sex in relationships. Lastly, the positioning of the subjects in this photograph helps in explaining the motives of the characters. The fact that the subjects are looking away from the camera in this scenario tells the audience that there is some element of mischief in the picture.
Nan One Month after Being Battered (1984)
Nan One Month after Being Battered (1984) is another piece of work that Goldin presented in her diary released in 1986. The picture is the photographer’s self-portrait after she had been battered by her boyfriend. In a close view, the portrait is a raw photograph that instills fear among the audience, particularly when it comes to the thought of what the artist may have encountered during the audile. What is shown in the portrait is a serious form of domestic violence that the artist finally opens up and unveils for the whole world to view. Nan One Month after Being Battered is a clear demonstration of male dominance that features the artist’s life as well as that of her pals. One thing that is prominent in this photograph is the fact that it challenges the common notion that photography is factored into a party as the last thing after everything else has been planned. However, this belief does not apply in the artist’s work since she seems to be part of every photograph she takes.
Out of all the photos Goldin compiled in The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, this image is confrontational and might make many of her audience uneasy. Nonetheless, it has to be seen. The color within the photograph speaks a lot for the art. It is quite evident in the picture, particularly when it comes to the strong lipsticks that the artist had put on. The strong lipsticks could be a clear show of an outright defiance to domestic violence that the artist manifests in her. With the signs of battery on her cheeks, the photographer is possibly relaying a message to her audience that even after the assault, she still remains strong and can move on with her life. Besides, the bright lighting of this portrait gives Goldin’s audience the impression of her openness and clarity regarding her take on male dominance within that era. The bruises in the artist’s face also create more emphasis on the artist’s openness. Finally, yet importantly, the framing that Goldin chose for Nan One Month after Being Battered tells a lot about the picture. The close-up framing that the artist uses in this picture conveys the power that she has in this picture, especially after having gone through a difficult life, both during her early life and her early adulthood. It is highly likely that the bright light in Nan One Month after Being Battered aids in enhancing the scene’s intensity and the bluish-green and yellow colors significantly represent the depression that the artist had to go through. Based on the photograph, it is also justifiable to claim that women are the most affected and that they are the ones on the receiving ends of the depression and suffering showcased in these photographs. The photo shows how women are abused whereas men are likely enjoying their dominance
Comparing and Contrasting the Arts
One of the works that Goldin created was the collection of The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (Goldin et al., 1986). As mentioned before, the work of this artist majorly focused on her life and that of her lovers. Goldin spent the better part of her life capturing the profoundly personal and intensely intimate personal moments of the people close to her. For instance, her works detailed the life of her friends and her lovers. Even so, throughout her entire career, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency came to define the artistic work in her (Goldin et al., 1986). From a critical point of view it is justifiable to claim that Nan One Month after Being Battered is a summarized compendium of human relationships, which serves as an individual diary detailing Goldin’s life and experiences. The two photographs discussed above both indicate that Goldin’s arts had some level of unrestricted and courageous photography, which she captured from natural scenes. It is also imperative to add into the account the shocking nature of these two arts. The sexually explicit nature of Man and Woman in Slips do not conceal any reality. Ostensibly, in the two photographs, the artist succeeds in showcasing a chronology of struggles of intimacy between lovers and friends. Whereas Nan One Month after Being Battered shows the male dominance and the struggles women faced during the early 1980s, Man and Woman in Slips showed the kind of life that the artist and her friends lived in the past.
From Goldin’s two photographs, it is imperative to recognize the big role that color played in her photography. The artist uses color in her work by applying both bright and dark flash when taking the two photos (Goldin et al., 1986). This is a clear demonstration that her audience has the role of going beyond what the artist showcased in the photo for them to interpret and bring the whole shebang into perspective. In the photos, men do not only abuse their women physically but also sexually (Goldin, 1984). As Goldin’s gallery title reads ‘Sexual Dependency,’ it is highly likely that women depend on men sexually, a situation that results to countless abuses by the people who are supposed to show protection and love to their loved ones.
Conclusion
After having gone through a dark past, it is substantial to claim that Nan Goldin is one of the most influential and award winning artists who have brought tremendous contributions to the field of photography today. Throughout her life, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, which is a collection of numerous works, is the most classic piece of art that the artist can forever be remembered for. The diary leaves vast of impressions on the audiences’ minds. Based on the images that the photographer showcased, it is also indubitable that the culture that Goldin lives in is apparently in a state of confusion, particularly when it comes to the connection between families, lovers, and friends. The artist presents her world since she is part of every happening showcased. Therefore, this insinuates that she does not narrate what happens in the life of the other people but talks about what revolves her world. In a nutshell, the artist presents a collection that does not only explain the confusion in the gender roles but also the disillusionment in relationships during her early adulthood.
References
Goldin, N. (1984). Nan one month after being battered. Cibachrome photograph, Allen Art.
Goldin, N. (1995). Doing Life: Nan Goldin Talks with Danny Lyon. Artforum International.
Goldin, N., Heiferman, M., Holborn, M., & Fletcher, S. (1986). The ballad of sexual dependency (p. 6). New York: Aperture.
Weinberg, J., & Robinson, J. H. (2005). Fantastic tales: the photography of Nan Goldin. Palmer Museum of Art.
Zuromskis, C. (2013). Snapshot photography: The lives of images.
Appendices
Nan One Month after Being Battered (1984) (Goldin, 1984).
Man and Woman in Slips (1980) (Zuromskis, 2013).
