The Devil's Playground: 0000

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Goldin first started photographing drag queens in 1972 and fell in love with their free way of living. This image is part of a large series of photos that Goldin took in 1991 of drag queens in New York, Paris, and Berlin. This image, along with various others that celebrate gender fluidity, was later published in Goldin’s third book, titled The Other Side (1993). In this publication, Goldin writes that she identifies as bisexual and that for her, “the third gender seems to be the ideal”. This monograph brings to light both the sources of Goldin's inspiration and her life as a prominent contemporary artist: she is internationally recognized as one of today's leading photographers. Born in Washington DC, Goldin grew up in Boston where she began taking photographs at the age of 15. She has since lived in New York, Bangkok, Berlin, Tokyo and Paris, amassing an extensive body of work that represents an often disconcertingly seductive photographic portrait of our time. Specifications:

The lighting of the image is sensual and soft with an intimate yellow hue suggesting that the sun might be setting. This could be symbolic of the waning of their relationship, which would end in the following year. There are a few, select objects that are intrinsic to my sense of home. Objects that, without which, I would feel a fraction less myself. Things that have followed me for years, bearing dust from various flats and houses, collecting traces of skin from various hands. My copies of Nan Goldin’s The Ballad of Sexual Dependency and The Devil’s Playground are key players in this selection.

Oxy

The documentary and confessional style of this self-portrait are like the images she took of other people in her life, which are almost always raw, honest, and emotional, but glamorous. The photograph, Goldin claims, marks the end of a long-term abusive relationship with a man whom she loved deeply. Around this time, Goldin attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts from which she graduated in 1978. After her graduation, she moved to New York City, where she continued to photograph the subcultures of the city, along with the post-punk new-wave music scene. Patti LaBelle Aids awareness poster from the 1980’s produced by the United States Public Health Service; Public Health Service, HHS, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons The images that Goldin took between 1978 and 1995 are all connected with themes of love, intimacy, and sexuality. She also documented her own relationship with her boyfriend, Brian, with images such as Nan and Brian in Bed, New York City (1983). Her relationship with Brian was one of codependency, passion, and sometimes, violence.

In the decades before Nan Goldin began photographing drag queens, impersonation was a crime which saw 44 attendees at the New York City Drag ball arrested in 1962; Associated Press, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

P.A.I.N.

One of Goldin’s most notable works is Nan one month after being battered (1984) in which she documented the end of their relationship after she suffered dramatic physical abuse. The iconic image marks Goldin’s decision to reclaim her life, identity, and independence. Now living in Lincoln, Goldin enrolled at the Satya Community School when she turned 16. One of the staff members at the school introduced young Goldin to photography. Scarred by the sudden death of her sister, Goldin started photographing other people in her life as a way to preserve them and their shared moments through an image. She also started using photography as a political tool to visualize and capture intimacy and humanity in America’s nonconforming subgroups. Nan Goldin: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (2012) by Nan Goldin, edited by Mark Holborn, Marvin Heiferman, and Suzanne Fletcher Looking at Nan Goldin’s photography is like paging through the intimate moments of someone’s journal. Her works are powerful in their sensual, honest, and brave portrayal of love among the subcultures of America at the time. Below, we discuss three seminal Nan Goldin photos in more depth.