Nan Goldin, Nan One Month After Being Battered, 1984
Nan Goldin describes her photographs as a ‘visual diary’. She has stated: ‘These are my friends, these are my family, this is myself. There is no separation between me and what I photograph.’ The self-portraitNan one month after being battered was taken to prevent Goldin from forgetting the damage caused by her boyfriend’s violence. She applies the same frankness to the lives of her close friends. Goldin is attracted to the glamour of the world of drag-queens and transvestites. In Jimmy Paulette and Taboo! Undressing, NYC 1991, two men are caught in the midst of their gender transformation. Characteristically, this moment of exposure is presented with candour and empathy.
I don’t find Nan Goldin’s work easy to look at by any means, but I really, really respect her as an artist. I’m usually drawn to things that are aesthetically appealing and generally pretty (in some variation of the word) and Nan’s work usually does not fit into that category for me. Yet, for some reason, I’m still very drawn to her work. Her work makes me incredibly uncomfortable and I realize that that feeling is part of what she is trying to talk about in her photographs. I love that her “visual diary” is so much more than just documentation of her, her friends, and her family, and yet its as simple as a daily journal at the same time.
