Nancy “Nan” Goldin is an American Documentary Photographer born in Washington D.C. in 1953. Goldin is a highly successful photographer, renowned for her exploration of extreme subject matters, counter-cultures and personal stories.

Born in Washington D.C in 1953 to middle-class Jewish Parents, Nan’s family moved to Boston, Massachusetts when she was very young. Goldin had a troubled upbringing, getting involved in alcohol and drug-taking from a very young age (these early experiences would shape her later work). Goldin left her home at the age of 13, where she joined a group of young people occupied with drugs, violence and sex. In the midst of her troubled lifestyle, Golding enrolled at ‘Steya Community School’, where at age 15, her school-friend introduced her to photography. Photography was a form of escape for Goldin, allowing her to express herself creatively. It gave her chaotic life a sense of direction and purpose. Goldin’s early artistic influences included visual artist Andy Warhol, surrealist film-maker Fedrico Fellini, and fashion photographers such as Guy Bourdin and Helmut Newton. These influences, along with her own experiences inspired Goldin to use photography as a way of exploring extreme counter-cultures such as sexuality, lifestyle, dependencies etc.

Early Beginnings 

At the age of 18 Goldin became interested with sexual themes, interests and gender-identities that are consider counter-culture; homosexuality, bisexuality, cross-dressers and trans-sexual people. In particular Goldin studied and immersed herself into the world of “drag queens”. (men who cross-dress as woman for entertainment and enjoyment). This interest was explored in 1973 with a solo exhibition studying Boston’s gay and transsexual communities. Goldin gained a sense of admiration for these groups. After this initial exposure into the photographic world, Goldin studied at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston University. Goldin continued to venture in the underground world of subcultures throughout the course of the 70s.

The Ballard of Sexual Dependency

After graduating from University, Goldin moved to New York City, and began to document the post-punk new-wave music scene. Between the course of 1979-1986 Goldin decided to embark on an ongoing photography project exploring her own perspective and struggles. This idea ventured away from Goldin’s previously objective ‘outsider’ style of photographing, and began to document from an ‘insider’ perspective of her own family and community. This project concluded in 1986 with Goldin’s highly successful publication ‘The Ballard of Sexual Dependency’, originally made as a slideshow presentation. The piece revealed with great honesty an insight in Goldin’s life and the relationship’s she shared with different people, including her abusive ex-boyfriend. Goldin herself described the piece as “the struggle in relationships between autonomy and intimacy”

 A image from Goldin’s ‘Ballard of Sexual Dependency’ 

Nan Talking About ‘The Ballard of Sexual Dependencies’, her evaluation of the series, and an insight into her ideas and inspirations

Later Career

Nan continued to photograph the world of underground sub-subcultures. She ventured in the theme of morality and death, through a series of images called Family of Nan, 1990–92, in reference of Edward Steichen’s ‘Family of Man series in the 1950, documenting her friends’ AIDS-related deaths. She also began to travel outside of America, for example photographed Japanese youths while travelling in Asia, and in 1995 she published those images in the book Tokyo Love: Spring Fever 1994. In 1995 she also worked with the BBC for a documentary film entitled ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’ , with film-maker Edmund Coulthard.

Golding has held exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City (1996–97) and at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (2001).  She has been the received numerous awards for her photography, including the prestigious Hasselblad Award in 2007.

Link to Nan Goldin’s Documentary, ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’

Tableaux is a french word. It derived from the term ‘tableaux vivant’, which translates to living picture.

Tableau photography is completely staged type of photography. People are normally instructed to pose in these images, which creates a constructed environment. The models are often placed in over the top outfits and dramatic stages. The result, is that a ‘pictorial narrative’ is created. Many artists may produce scenes from fairy-tales, myths and depict both real and unreal situations.

This medium relates to the practice of performance photography, in that, tableau’s are made through the act of performance. It also connects to studio portraiture, as the subjects normally wear bold outfits, act and there’s usually extravagant backdrops.

Unlike documentary, tableau photography tells a story through a single image. Documentary is about developing a story with various pictures. Tableau photographs are usually shown in exhibitions and are compared to other artworks. In the past, many photographers desired to achieve pictures that looked like art.

A very modern Tableau photographer is Tom Hunter. Here’s a link to his website: http://www.tomhunter.org/

Example’s of his work:

Another modern artist is Tracey Moffatt. When she was in an interview she was asked “Curator Lynne Cooke said you don’t take pictures; you make pictures.” She responded by stating “Yes. Technically, I’m quite stupid. I hardly know how to use a camera. I often use technicians when I make my pictures. I more or less direct them. I stand back and call the shots.”

Here’s some examples of this Australian photographer’s tableau’s:

Moving on, Pictorialism is an aesthetic movement that started in the late 18th century. This photography dominated and influenced many people during time until the early 20th century.

Photographers would edit their outcomes until they got the same form and texture as art, such as altering the focus to a softer one. They wanted to create something completely opposite to the normal commercial images of that time. The Pictorialists rebelled against mechanization and industrialization. This is because they didn’t like the fact that photographers were capturing industrial things on a regular basis. Here’s an example:

Since they were very influenced by the ideals of art, they were influenced by Allegorical painting. Allegory is fictional, it’s all about symbols and representations. However, the underlying meaning normally has: social, religious, political and moral significance. The people that pose in the Tableau’s usually portray the following: greed, envy, love, etc. Their photographs showed many concepts such as: expressions of their personal opinions, beliefs and spiritual moments. A very famous photographer was Julia Margret Cameron, who like the Piscatorialists got her inspiration from the Pre-Raphaelite era. Here’s an example of her work:

Cameron  used to shoot with very soft natural lighting. She’d tell the models to have very subtle and calm poses. She used long exposures so that the people she photographed would have a blurred appearance when the role came out.

‘Family’ is a social relationship shared between different people, who are considered to be ‘related’ in some way to one another. Family has a very open-ended and general meaning. After researching on thee internet I found numerous interpretations of what family means

• a group of people related to one another by blood or marriage
• the children of a person or couple
• all the descendants of a common ancestor
• a race or group of peoples from a common stock
• close friends or group of friends

The definition of family isn’t hugely important. The important idea to grasp is that  family is effectively a strong bond shared between people or groups of people that is built on trust and understanding. Family whether through friendship, community or blood, is arguably the strongest bond between human beings, and has massive influence over a person’s morals, beliefs, ideas and livelihoods. Family usually lasts through an individuals life and is critical towards the decisions a person makes, there general well-being and personal development, with both  negative and positive effects. Instinctively, people feel a strong need to join into different social relationships and organisations. ‘Fitting in’ to a social group of some description can help to provide a person with a sense of comfort and security. It is based on a survival instinct – people feel less vulnerable to attack if they belong to a supportive group, hence the concept of ‘safety in numbers’.

Exploring Family through different forms of art.

The broad meaning of family makes it an effective topic to study . The openness of the way family can be interpreted allows for creative and original responses. An artist exploring the idea of family has the freedom to question its meaning.

In photography, an insider perspective of family may be easy or difficult to explore dependent on the artists viewpoint. A photographer willing to reveal an honest, emotionally attached perspective may find such a concept very easy. On the other hand, a photographer who finds such an idea difficult to reveal to a larger audience because of personal reasons may struggle much more with this idea. An insider perspective, i.e. photographing members of your family does have a considerable advantage because the photographer is less likely to face challenges getting access. It can however be quite limiting because you are only photographing what you already know, issues that strectch onnly within your comfort zone.

American Photographer Tina Barney is well known for photographing her close friends and family. She therefore explores the idea of family from an ‘insider’ perspective.

An outsider perspective may present similar challenges. Although it allows for an observed, detached perspective which some photographers may find more comfortable to explore, with greater diversity and rang, it is often however more challenging because the photographer is not considered ‘one of the group’, and therefore may face the challenge of gaining trust to photograph different people. Because photography is a very personal form a communication, many people may find the idea of being photographed by a stranger very uncomfortable.