Nan Goldin (Washington DC, 1953) began taking photographs at the age of 15. Deeply affected by her sister's suicide in 1963, she began photographing her loved ones, creating a body of work that, in terms of both technique and subject matter, remains closely linked to the family album. In 1978, she moved to New York and, photographing the nightlife scene with its excesses and experimentation, documented what she called "her extended family"; these photographs became the subject of her slideshows and her first book, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. This deeply moving work made her the first female photographer to turn intimate details of her personal life into a public work of art, inspiring a new generation of artists. A stint in rehab in 1989 marked a turning point in her life. She rediscovered daylight and reconnected with the nature of her childhood. In 1991, she moved to Berlin, where she lived until 1994. There she collaborated on numerous artistic projects, notably with Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki for Tokyo Love and her old American friend David Amstrong for Double Life, both of which were published in 1994. Since the 1990s, her work has gained international recognition and she has had a series of major exhibitions, most recently a retrospective at MoMA in 2017.
Aperture, 2012
148 pages
9.2 × 8.9 inches
ISBN: 9781597112086
Nan Goldin (Washington DC, 1953) began taking photographs at the age of 15. Deeply affected by her sister's suicide in 1963, she began photographing her loved ones, creating a body of work that, in terms of both technique and subject matter, remains closely linked to the family album. In 1978, she moved to New York and, photographing the nightlife scene with its excesses and experimentation, documented what she called "her extended family"; these photographs became the subject of her slideshows and her first book, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. This deeply moving work made her the first female photographer to turn intimate details of her personal life into a public work of art, inspiring a new generation of artists. A stint in rehab in 1989 marked a turning point in her life. She rediscovered daylight and reconnected with the nature of her childhood. In 1991, she moved to Berlin, where she lived until 1994. There she collaborated on numerous artistic projects, notably with Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki for Tokyo Love and her old American friend David Amstrong for Double Life, both of which were published in 1994. Since the 1990s, her work has gained international recognition and she has had a series of major exhibitions, most recently a retrospective at MoMA in 2017.
Aperture, 2012
148 pages
9.2 × 8.9 inches
ISBN: 9781597112086
