Title
The Ballad Of Sexual Dependency
Author
Nan Goldin
Publisher
Aperture, 1986
From the publisher:
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 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.”
“Goldin, at the age of 33, has created an artistic masterwork that tells us not only about the attitudes of her generation, but also about the times in which we live.”—Andy Grundberg, The New York Times
“Goldin’s prescient philosophy has, if anything been solidified by the intervening decade, and her Ballad resounds more poignantly than ever in its tenth-anniversary republication.”—Lawrence Schubert, Detour magazine
If you would like to receive 10% off this title, see here for a deal with the kind folks at Aperture
3 replies on “Synopsis: Nan Goldin – ‘The Ballad Of Sexual Dependency’”
A fascinating, compelling book. “Diary” is correct as it is the rather seedy and dissolute life that provides the real interest. Writing compellingly about such a life requires more skill than taking photos. Finding the words for the chaotic collisions, the violence or traces of violence, deciding how much to quote or report, what perspective to adopt: photography doesn’t really pose any of these challenges.
Nan Goldin emerges as a competent photographer and someone who probably lived her life (or her life ‘then’) as a kind of unfolding photobook . . .
The result is a pretty unique work. But unique (unmatched) also in Goldin’s subsequent career…
[…] ‘Ballad of Sexual Dependency‘ is by no means an undiscovered work, and as we will highlight, has been discussed and talked […]
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