Book Description
Goldin charts the loss of innocence through barrooms and parties on the social periphery of New York's East Village and through the harrowing worlds of drugs and prostitution. The Ballad of Sexual Dependency is a visual diary chronicling the struggle for intimacy and understanding between friends, and lovers--collectively described by Nan Goldin as her "tribe." Her work describes a world that is visceral, charged, and seething with life . . . . As Goldin writes: "Real memory, which these pictures trigger, is an invocation of the color, smell, sound, and physical presence, the density and flavor of life."
About the Author
Nan Goldin was born in Washington, D.C., in 1953. At eighteen, she began photographing her exted family in New York City; Provincetown, Massachusetts; and London. Her work continues to be exhibited worldwide.
Ballad of Sexual Dependency ANNOTATION
"...a sweeping, diaristic and critical account of life within the photographer's own artistic, urban subculture..." The New York Times
FROM THE PUBLISHER
The Ballad of Sexual Dependency is a visual diary chronicling the struggle for intimacy and understanding between friends, family, and lovers - collectively described by Goldin as her "tribe." Her work describes a world that is visceral, charged, and seething with life. First published in 1986, this reissue recognizes the persistent relevance and freshness of Nan Goldin's cutting-edge photography and its importance to an era ravaged by AIDS and drug addiction. Through an accurate and detailed record of her life, Ballad reveals Goldin's personal odyssey as well as a more universal understanding of the different languages men and women speak. In its ten years, the influence of Ballad on photography and other aesthetic realms has continually grown, making the work a contemporary classic. Nan Goldin's story of urban life on the fringe was the swan song of an era that reached its peak in the early eighties. Yet it has captured an important element of humanity which is transcendent: a need to connect.
FROM THE CRITICS
Booknews
Over 100 full-page color photographs chronicle the search for intimacy by Goldin and her circle of friends in an urban culture on the edge that peaked in the 1980s. They depict mostly young people interacting with each other, sometimes sexually, or with their surroundings, either comfortable or alien. Published in cloth in 1986, and also available in multimedia and videotape versions. No scholarly paraphernalia. Goldin's photographs have been exhibited in major museums and galleries. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
Art & Photography
Book Info
