Documenting the intimate lives of friends and lovers, as well as trusting acquaintances from bar scenes in New York and Boston, photographer Nan Goldin compiled hundreds of images made over two decades into The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. Presented in its original, 35mm slide-show format, the images seem to invite us into a world that is universally human yet highly specific. "There is a popular notion that the photographer is by nature a voyeur, the last one invited to the party," Goldin has said. "But I'm not crashing, this is my party. This is my family, my history." The title of the work is taken from a song in Bertolt Brecht's The Threepenny Opera; its soundtrack features New York bands like The Velvet Underground, whose song lyrics evoke themes explored within the photographs.
I know it's a different approach, but I have always been able to identify myself with Nan Golden. I know that she uses the camera to document her life in a way that I would like to be remembered as well- but hopefull in a more positive light. She is an inpirational documentary photographer for me because she truly uses the medium to express what is happening in her life. I really want to explore and advance in the overwhelming relm of documentary and I will strongly consider the raw tactics in which Nan has used throughout her carreer.
My Work. . .
