Joey in my mirror, Berlin, 1992 & Joey in my vanity mirror, NYC, 1999 by Nan Goldin

Nancy “Nan” Goldin (American, b. 1953) is an American photographer. She lives and works in New York City, Berlin, and Paris. Her work often features LGBT-related themes, images, or public figures.

The main themes of her early pictures are love, gender, domesticity, and sexuality; these frames are usually shot with available light. She has affectionately documented women looking in mirrors, girls in bathrooms and barrooms, drag queens, sexual acts, and the culture of obsession and dependency. In the book, Auto-Focus, her photographs are described as her way to “learn the stories and intimate details of those closest to her”. It speaks of her uncompromising manner and style when photographing acts such as drug use, sex, violence, arguments, and traveling. One of Goldin’s famous photographs, Nan One Month After Being Battered, 1984, has become an iconic image in contemporary art.

Goldin’s work since 1995 has included a wide array of subject matter: collaborative book projects with Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki; New York City skylines; uncanny landscapes (notably of people in water); her lover, Siobhan; and babies, parenthood and family life.

Adapted from: Wikipedia

The 1970s and 80s straddled a time of economic and societal prosperity for some, but the excitement of achieving success often served to marginalize anyone who was unable to keep up. Nan Goldin embraced that era’s lurid excesses and lived to tell the tale. Concentrating on her immediate surroundings and recording her everyday life, Goldin’s approach to documentary photography memorializes simple moments lived by extraordinary people, giving the viewer direct access into private situations. Colour, voyeurism, immediacy, and excitement are woven into the photographs made by this pioneering photographer, whose ability to capture the heightened drama in otherwise banal scenes continues to fascinate collectors.