NAN GOLDIN

"Nan and Brian in bed" 1981 "The Hug" 1980

Nan Goldin is an American Documentary photographer born in the 1950's. She grew up in Washington DC in an upper-middle class Jewish family in the Boston Massachusetts suburb of Lexington. She attended a local high school until she enrolled into the Boston community school where a teacher introduced her to a camera. At this stage she was just 15 years old. Her first solo show consisted of images about the city's gay and transsexual communities which she was introduced to by her friend David Armstrong. After she graduated Nan Goldin moved to where she began work on the post-punk new wave music scene, along with the city's most vibrant gay culture of the late 1070s and early 1980s. She was drawn to the hard drug culture and this is evident in her work from her famous work The Ballad of Sexual Dependency a tittle taken from a song in the moments.

Nan Goldin had a view on sexual relationships and was fascinated by different sexualities and also found it interesting how men and women are seen in relationships as to the roles they play. she took photographs from her own personal relationships, close friends and the circle of life she lived in. The photographs above are the ones that stand out for me because she portraits her boyfriend Brian in a very masculine way in which she seems to be the smaller player in the relationship.In the photograph titled Brian and Nan in bed they seems to be a lack of communication suggesting a crack or a bad time in the relationship. they also seems to be no positive body language which gives away a negative vibe between the two, i find this very fascinating that she was willing to portrait/ document her own life/ relationships in this way, for me it makes it that extra little bit more interesting and more meaningful.

In the other image entitled The Hug, there seems to be much happiness and sexuality. it is almost a very romantic shot in which she is clinging onto the arms of her very masculine partner. I think in this shot she was trying to show what attracts her in a man and i am not surer if this is the same partner in the other image Brian. The arm coming around her waist on a very aggressive but yet gentle way suggest the feeling of safety. she seems to feel very safe and happy with this guy and i find this photograph very interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z3sihEuiEk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xKDsrMH-Sg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z3sihEuiEk&feature=related