Appreciations of Nan Goldin.

For obvious reasons Nan Goldin should be and is one the most celebrated Photographers of our time. Her ability to penetrate and project intimacies in the lives others is a talent I believe never to have really been achieved by any other. Although she has sometimes been criticised for making heroin 'chic' her work has depth that doesn't even bare resonance with this statement. I could talk at length about the intricacies and subject matters covered by Goldin but as so many have done this before I would like to stray away from the analytical norm and focus more on the aesthetics of her work.
Of course like most people the initial shock in Nan Goldin's work is what at first drew me to it, but on closer inspection it is the true grit of composition and especially lighting that really excites me. Take for example the Image "Cookie 1983" the protagonist sits in a slumped position with a look of resignation, but also despair, for what reasons we can only speculate, but it is a given that Goldin has captured her a low point in time. Take the lighting however the red tint to the whole image brings to mind the idea of rose tinted glasses. Although Nan Goldin was known for shooting in available light it seems that she has manipulated the light in this scene to her advantage, I would like to call this ironic lighting.

We see the same manipulation of light in "Brian and Nan in Bed 1981" from The Ballad of Sexual Dependency the natural sunlight streams through the window falling on Brians face, creating a illusion of warmth when actually it is clear from stiffness in posture of the male protagonist and the hunched retracted position of Goldin that something dismal, even horrific has occurred. It as though Goldin uses this Rosy hue to test the viewer, a trick of the mind, so on initial inspection we believe we are seeing a scene of comfort when in actual fact we see miserable people in unhappy circumstances. The shock maximises the impact of what we see so the effect stays with us penetrating our mind, so inevitably
we remember that Nan Goldin picture.

Nan Goldin 55 Phaidon Press
http://fototapeta.art.pl/2003/ngie.php
John Waters Pink Flamingos 1972