History of Photography: Nan Goldin - Essay Example

Now there is no need to buy a tour to all these countries, climb the mountain or take the lessons in diving, just look at the masterly pictures taken by a professional photographer, and you will plunge into the magical world of photography. As a rule, people of art are considered to be weird and even a little bit crazy. There is no wonder because they constantly need a source of inspiration, and this source is constantly drying. Talented photographers are not an exception. Nancy (Nan) Goldin was born in 1963 in Maryland.

Nancy grew up in the middle class family; she was the youngest of the four children. Little Nan was very close with her elder sister Barbara Holly, who unfortunately committed suicide. This tragic incident was a first serious bitter experience in her life. Nan says: “I knew it was going to happen, since I was really young. She told me” (Garratt). Though Nan was neither shocked, nor grief-stricken, it was not easy for her to overcome that dull depression. Barbara’s suicide found its reflection in the further pieces of art created by Nan.

In 1968 Nan fell in love for the first time, she fell in love with a camera, to which she was introduced by her teacher at the Satya Community School in Lincoln. Nan spent a lot of time with her new friend David Armstrong, watching movies and exploring sexual minorities’ subculture. David Armstrong was the one who renamed her Nan (Garratt). At that time Nancy started taking drugs, heroin, in particular. Her first exhibition was held in Boston in 1973, the life of city gays and transsexuals was the main topic of her show.

Her pictures were so alive, so breathing, they simply created the atmosphere of personal presence in those low places she took her pictures. Her images were so outspoken, colorful and impudent. Nan started her rebellion against the accepted social conventions, she had her own viewpoint, her own position, her own moral principles, and some critics were not satisfied with the principles she preached. In 1977 Nancy finished the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, then in 1978 graduated from the Tufts University, where she started her intimate diary on photo paper.

The diary was black and white. After graduation Nan went to New York City. The photographer tried to explore the life of the post-punk, gay, hard-drug and other representatives of youth subcultures from the inside. So Nancy Golding finally found herself deeper and deeper penetrating into the environment of cigarette smoke, drugs and sexual looseness. That’s when her diary acquired color. The main themes of her pictures were drugs, sex, violence and holidays. Especial Goldin’s holidays where no place for joy is.

“The photographs taken during the period between 1979 and 1986 form her famous work The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, a 45-minutes slide-show containing 720 photos. The Ballad of Sexual Dependency is recognized as outstanding in modern photography. These snapshot aesthetic images depict drug use, violent, aggressive couples and autobiographical moments” (Garratt). The central photo of the series is Nan’s self-portrait with huge bruises under her eyes. Those were “traces of love”, left by her lover Brian that were, obviously, preceded by hot “Hug”, another famous masterpiece of Nan Golding.

Nan Goldin makes of photo of her and her lover. The main of the picture the author wanted to express is the necessity of