Nan Goldin the Devils Playground

by Nan Goldin

This is a major collection of photographs by Nan Goldin, representing over 35 years' work. This significant body of work begins in the early 1970s with her "Dazzle Bag" portraits and her series of photographs on themes of maternity, family and landscapes. The book contains Goldin's new and recent photographs in narrative and thematic sequences such as "Landscapes", "Self-portraits", "Maternity, Heartbeat" (2001), "My French Family" (1999-2001) and "57 days" (2000), many of which are previously unpublished. It also contains some of the "drag queen" photos of the mid-1990s, the "Cookie Mueller" portfolio of 1989 and the "Ballad of Sexual Dependency" images from the 1980s. Goldin's early black-and-white photographs from the Boston years in the 1970s also form part of this substantial collection. Nan Goldin's photographs are intimate and compelling - they tell personal stories of relationships, friendships and identity, but at the same time chronicle different eras and the passage of time. Their subject matter ranges from drag queens and AIDS to the family, maternity and most recently, nature and landscapes. Laid out in chronological sequences by the artist, like a diary, the material is both candid and affirmative. In addition, a number of short essays are interspersed throughout the photographic sequences. Individually, these texts discuss different aspects or themes in Nan Goldin's work such as the narrative, love and gender politics, while also referencing particular works such as the "Ballad of Sexual Dependency" (1981-96). A conversation between the artist and Catherine Lampert, freelance curator, former director of the Whitechapel and close friend of Goldin, touches on the sources of her inspiration and her life as a prominent artist.

Genres: Photography, Art, Nonfiction, Literature, Love, Art and Photography

Hardcover

First published November 18, 2003

About the author

Nan Goldin is an American photographer known for her deeply personal and candid portraiture. Goldin’s intimate images act as a visual autobiography documenting herself and those closest to her, especially in the LGBTQ community and the heroin-addicted subculture. Her opus The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (1980–1986) is a 40-minute slideshow of 700 photographs set to music that chronicled her life in New York during the 1980s. The Ballad was first exhibited at the 1985 Whitney Biennial, and was made into a photobook the following year. “For me it is not a detachment to take a picture. It's a way of touching somebody—it's a caress,” she said of the medium. “I think that you can actually give people access to their own soul.”

Born Nancy Goldin on September 12, 1953 in Washington, D.C., the artist began taking photographs as a teenager to cherish her relationships with those she photographed, as well as a political tool to inform the public of issues that were important to her. Influenced both by the fashion photography of Helmut Newton and Guy Bourdin she saw in magazines, as well as the revelatory portraits of Diane Arbus and August Sander, Goldin captured herself and her friends at their most vulnerable moments, as seen in her seminal photobook Nan Goldin: I’ll Be Your Mirror (1996). In 2018, she collaborated with the clothing brand Supreme by including three of her photographs, Misty and Jimmy Paulette in a taxi, NYC (1991), Kim in Rhinestones, Paris (1991), and Nan as a dominatrix, Cambridge, MA (1978) on their spring/summer collection.

The artist currently lives and works between New York, NY, and Paris, France. Today, Goldin’s works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Modern in London, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, among others.

Reviews

[Jeff Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Novelistic in its structure and ambitions. Would be more powerful at half the length, though.

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Content is 5 stars but the layout knocks a star off. Printing numerous full page color photographs across the gutter really distracts.

[Aurora Domeniconi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Il sublime nel taglio fotografico di Goldin sulla quotidianità. Una immersione totale non sono CON ma anche DENTRO ai suoi soggetti.

Invidiabile, mirabile. Sembra di cambiare vita in ogni pagina.

[Teresa Coutinho · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite photographer ever

[Nyx · Rating 4 out of 5]

definición de voyeurismo lol

[Odette · Rating 4 out of 5]

ja, heel mooi en ook met Nick Cave is extra leuk

[Christopher Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, I feel like this is sort-of cheating because this is actually a book of photography, but it's my FAVORITE book of photography, so... who cares. Nan Goldin's relationships with her subjects is amazing. These are such intimate, gorgeous photographs; they speak of so much trust between the two sides of the camera. Don't be scared by the price tag; this book is so very worth it.

[Mary]

This book was given to me by Beulah and Justin.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

dirty and gorgeous photographs

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best READ on an actual playground...

[Tiffani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nan Goldin is one of my favorite artist and this is a great collection of her work.