Nan Goldin

Nan Goldin (b. 1953) is an American photographer whose practice has centred on intimate documentary work within her own social and personal world since the 1970s. Her landmark work The Ballad of Sexual Dependency — first shown as a slide show in New York clubs and later published as a book in 1986 — established a mode of photographic intimacy that has shaped documentary, fashion, and art photography for four decades. Working with available light, colour film, and close proximity to her subjects, Goldin produced an extended visual record of desire, dependency, violence, friendship, and loss within the downtown New York scene, the AIDS crisis, and her own ongoing life.

Publications collected here document Goldin's practice and its circulation, including artist books, exhibition catalogues, and printed matter through which her photographic world entered institutional and private hands.

  • Original 2017 Nan Goldin, Biesenthal, Document Journal in collaboration with Saint Laurent. Cover showing a colour photograph of a partially visible female figure at right — bare torso, sequined mini skirt, holding a cigarette — against a large dark wall with warm ambient light at upper left. No title text on cover; image bleeds to edges. Original 2017 Nan Goldin, Biesenthal, Document Journal in collaboration with Saint Laurent. Cover showing a colour photograph of a partially visible female figure at right — bare torso, sequined mini skirt, holding a cigarette — against a large dark wall with warm ambient light at upper left. No title text on cover; image bleeds to edges.

    Nan Goldin — Biesenthal, Document Journal / Saint Laurent, 2017

    Nan Goldin — Biesenthal, Document Journal / Saint Laurent, 2017