Nan Goldin essays

Nan Goldin essays As a documentary photographer there is a certain knowledge that needs to be held of the subject matter. What makes Nan Goldin stand out is that all of her subjects are people who are closely involved in her life, and sometimes even herself, which gives her the ultimate knowledge. Her life is not mutually exclusive from theirs, and I think thats what gives her photographs a life of their own that is just as intimate as if we, the viewer, were actually there. The idea that many times she was photographing as a means of recording events of days and nights that she was unable to recall due to alcohol and drugs, makes her images have even more of an impact. Nan Goldin started photographing in Boston, taking pictures of herself and her friends in different costumes, and progressed on to photographing drag queens in their regalia. She continued with similar themes and grew to include the unavoidable aspects of her life, which were the affects, and occasional death, of those around her due to sexual and chemical addiction. These documentations evolved in to an intimate collection of sex, destruction, and self-reinvention. She gets right in to the personal space of her subjects, she is allowed this closeness because of the personal relationships with these people. There is a sense of trust between her and her subjects, the way they all have let down their guard and let her document them in compromising situations almost makes this a portrait of an entire lifestyle more than just the individuals. Of course it is her life, intertwined with the others, that eradicates the feeling of her imposing as a photographer, which is why h er images are so powerful. There isnt a feeling that anyone is putting on an act for her, which would diminish some of the documentary feel, everyone is comfortable in her presence which makes this a true document of the love and loss, and highs and lows of the dr ...