Nan Goldin The Other Side
It would be difficult to explore the timeline of LGBTQ+ movements in the art world without a look at New York CIty photographer, Nan Goldin. Her photographs are deeply personal, moving, among being simply aesthetically beautiful. Her work has often explored subcultures, with a distinct ability to capture intimate moments alongside large social movements. The deep glow and personal portraiture of her work was once accented in the nightlife scene in New York City. She is known, particularly for a body of work called The Ballad of Sexual Dependency which visually told the story of her own personal life, family, and close queer communities in the 1980s.
Much of the greater general narrative of Goldin’s work can be understood through a comprehensive written and visual book, The Other Side, originally published in 1993. And although, Goldin’s images speak for themselves in ways often more powerful than words, this book has a way of bringing those images to the voice of the photographer herself and her subjects to bring these stories to life in a way. The work features photos from the 70s to the 90s, including the glamour of drag as it rose to the tragedy of the AIDS epidemic. The collection, in totality, is a display of the love that came from Goldin’s side of the camera. It is how she saw these people, in their most powerful, most beautiful, and most painful all at once.