Essay Plan 2
PART 1: OVERVIEW (Paragraph 1 & 2 & 3: 300 words)
- Key ideas behind Nan Goldin’s work
- Relationships, drug addiction, genders.
- How they relate to photography & Key methodologies, processes and techniques
- Visual diary. Photographs directly from her life out of relationships to remember.[1]
- How I would describe her work
- Based on her own personal experiences. Attractive to me because my motivation of practice is expressing my own state.
PART 2: KEY PIECES (Paragraphs 4 & 5 & 6) (+ Relationship to photography field, research on academic journals and books)
- The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, 1986: 500 words
- Context & Description: About her friends, almost all of whom lived with her.[2] Nothing like the Ballad had happened before except Tulsa, a huge influence on her. About struggle in relationships between intimacy and autonomy.[3]
- My interest: It attracted me as I was trying to express how we were dependent on sex to get temporary fix.
- What I think: Goldin uses a most direct and honest way to achieve her purpose of the diary, which is really brave. It is also the casual nature of her work that creates such a straightforward effect.
- The Devil’s Playground, 2003: 500 words
- Relations to social, political and cultural issues: Focus on those usually estranged from society, alternative gender identities, Aids patients, heroin addicts, and urban subcultures, the consequences of their American freedom.[6]
- Key methodologies, processes and techniques: Photographs out of desire, empathy and love.[7] Created during her own heroin addiction.
- Description: There are portraits of friends, herself, children and parents.[8] It shows problems, also the way people work those problems out, and the difference between a first relationship and a more mature relationship.[9]
- What I think/compare it with the last work
- Memory Lost, 2019: 500 words
- Context: In 2017, she founded Prescription Addiction Intervention Now.[10]
- Description: Images of friends laughing, crying and having sex, landscapes and skies, people in nature, religious icons, people in water, fire, drugs, beds and rooms.
- Relations to social, political and cultural issues: A discussion as to whether dope is worse for the memory than coke.[11]
- Key methodologies, process and techniques: The low quality and high noise of the images show the distance and age of memories.
- What I think: The mix of still images and short footage, the negative slow music and recordings of phone message and interviews give the photographs more power to make viewers absorbed in the narratives. I think it’s overall successful to show the messy, confusing and lost memories due to the darkness of addiction and convey the addicts’ miserable experiences. However, if paying attention to each photograph, I doubt the meaning of some single photos’ existence in the slideshow.
PART 3: SUMMARY (Paragraph 7): 200 words
- Key ideas and how they relate to photography
- Getting more positive power and impact. The themes shift as she gets different experiences.
- What I think
- Compared to her photography skills, I think she’s more skilled at connecting with people and seeing people’s emotions, which gives her photos powerful emotions that viewers can feel.
- How I would describe her work
- Goldin’s medium is more slideshow or photobook instead of photography.
549 words without footnotes + Bibliography
Bibliography
Buck, Louisa, ‘Nan Goldin brings her empathy and activism to London’ (21 November 2019) https://www.theartnewspaper.com/blog/nan-goldin-brings-her-empathy-and-activism-to-london [Accessed 23 November 2019]
Chrisafis, Angelique, ‘My camera has saved my life’ (22 May 2008) https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/may/22/photography.art [Accessed 25 November 2019]
Christov-Bakargiev, Carolyn, ‘Nan Goldin. Devil’s playground’ https://www.castellodirivoli.org/en/mostra/nan-goldin-devils-playground/ [Accessed 25 November 2019]
Garratt, Sheryl, ‘The dark room’ (6 January 2002) https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2002/jan/06/features.magazine27 [Accessed 25 November 2019]
Goldin, Nan, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (New York: Aperture Foundation, 2012)
Harris, Melissa, and Michael Famighetti, Aperture Foundation (eds.), Aperture Conversations: 1985 to the Present (Switzerland: AVA Publishing SA, 2018)
INDEPENDENT, ‘The Devil’s Playground by Nan Goldin’ (11 January 2004) https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-devils-playground-by-nan-goldin-73230.html [Accessed 25 November 2019]
Licursi, E. P., ‘RYAN MCGINLEY’S EXUBERANT DOWNTOWN, 1999-2003’ (3 March 2017) https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/ryan-mcginleys-exuberant-downtown-1999-2003 [Accessed 24 November 2019]
McCord, Brooke, ‘Your ultimate guide to Nan Goldin’ (11 January 2017) https://www.dazeddigital.com/photography/article/34062/1/your-ultimate-guide-to-nan-goldin[Accessed 25 November 2019]
MOCA, Nan Goldin – The Ballad of Sexual Dependency – MOCA U – MOCAtv, online video recording, YouTube, 6 December 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B6nMlajUqU[accessed 22 November 2019]
MARIAN GOODMAN GALLERY, ‘Nan Goldin Sirens’ https://www.mariangoodman.com/exhibitions/351-nan-goldin-sirens/ [Accessed 25 November 2019]
Spindler, Amy M., ‘A Death Tarnishes Fashion’s ‘Heroin Look’’ (20 May 1997) https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/20/style/a-death-tarnishes-fashion-s-heroin-look.html[Accessed 23 November 2019]
Searle, Adrian, ‘Nan Goldin review – Gut-wrenching, brilliant and beautiful. I cannot turn away’ https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/nov/14/nan-goldin-review-marian-goodman-gallery-london-gut-wrenching-brilliant-beautiiful [Accessed 25 November 2019]
Tate, Nan Goldin – ‘My Work Comes from Empathy and Love’ | TateShots, online video recording, YouTube, 1 May 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_rVyt-ojpY [Accessed 25 November 2019]Tillman, Lynne, ‘ART; A New Chapter of Nan Goldin’s Diary’ (16 November 2003) https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/16/books/art-a-new-chapter-of-nan-goldin-s-diary.html[Accessed 23 November 2019]
[1] Nan Goldin, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (New York: Aperture Foundation, 2012).
[2] Melissa Harris, Michael Famighetti, Aperture Foundation (eds.), Aperture Conversations: 1985 to the Present (Switzerland: AVA Publishing SA, 2018).
[3] MOCA, Nan Goldin – The Ballad of Sexual Dependency – MOCA U – MOCAtv, online video recording, YouTube, 6 December 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B6nMlajUqU [accessed 22 November 2019].
[4] ‘A Death Tarnishes Fashion’s ‘Heroin Look’’, Amy M. Spindler (20 May 1997) https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/20/style/a-death-tarnishes-fashion-s-heroin-look.html [Accessed 23 November 2019].
[5] ‘RYAN MCGINLEY’S EXUBERANT DOWNTOWN, 1999-2003’, E. P. Licursi (3 March 2017) https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/ryan-mcginleys-exuberant-downtown-1999-2003 [Accessed 24 November 2019].
[6] My view on this has been inspired by my reading of ‘ART; A New Chapter of Nan Goldin’s Diary’, Lynne Tillman (16 November 2003) https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/16/books/art-a-new-chapter-of-nan-goldin-s-diary.html [Accessed 23 November 2019]. ‘Nan Goldin Sirens’, MARIAN GOODMAN GALLERY https://www.mariangoodman.com/exhibitions/351-nan-goldin-sirens/ [Accessed 25 November 2019]. ‘The Devil’s Playground by Nan Goldin’, INDEPENDENT (11 January 2004) https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-devils-playground-by-nan-goldin-73230.html [Accessed 25 November 2019]. ‘NAN GOLDIN: DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND’, <http://www.stunned.org/goldin.htm> [Accessed 25 November 2019]. ‘Your ultimate guide to Nan Goldin’, Brooke McCord (11 January 2017) https://www.dazeddigital.com/photography/article/34062/1/your-ultimate-guide-to-nan-goldin [Accessed 25 November 2019].
[7] My view on this has been inspired by my reading of ‘My camera has saved my life’, Angelique Chrisafis (22 May 2008) https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/may/22/photography.art [Accessed 25 November 2019]. Tate, Nan Goldin – ‘My Work Comes from Empathy and Love’ | TateShots, online video recording, YouTube, 1 May 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_rVyt-ojpY [Accessed 25 November 2019].
[8] ‘Nan Goldin. Devil’s playground’, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev https://www.castellodirivoli.org/en/mostra/nan-goldin-devils-playground/[Accessed 25 November 2019].
[9] ‘The dark room’, Sheryl Garratt (6 January 2002) https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2002/jan/06/features.magazine27[Accessed 25 November 2019].
[10] ‘Nan Goldin brings her empathy and activism to London’, Louisa Buck (21 November 2019) https://www.theartnewspaper.com/blog/nan-goldin-brings-her-empathy-and-activism-to-london [Accessed 23 November 2019].
[11] ‘Nan Goldin review – Gut-wrenching, brilliant and beautiful. I cannot turn away’, Adrian Searle https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/nov/14/nan-goldin-review-marian-goodman-gallery-london-gut-wrenching-brilliant-beautiiful [Accessed 25 November 2019].
Essay Plan
PART 1: OVERVIEW (Paragraph 1 & 2 & 3: 300 words)
- Key ideas behind Nan Goldin’s work
- Relationships, drug addiction, genders.
- How they relate to photography & Key methodologies, processes and techniques
- Visual diary. Photographs directly from her life out of relationships to remember.[1]
- How I would describe her work
- Based on her own personal experiences. Attractive to me because my motivation of practice is expressing my own state.
PART 2: KEY PIECES (Paragraphs 4 & 5 & 6)
- The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, 1986: 500 words
- Context & Description: About her friends, almost all of whom lived with her.[2] Nothing like the Ballad had happened before except Tulsa, a huge influence on her. About the struggle in relationships between intimacy and autonomy.[3]
- How her work relates to my interest: It attracted me as I was trying to express how we were dependent on sex to get temporary fix.
- What I think about her work: Goldin uses a most direct and honest way to achieve her purpose of the diary, which is really brave. It is also the casual nature of her work that creates such a straightforward effect.
- The Devil’s Playground, 2003: 500 words
- Relations to social, political and cultural issues: Focus on those usually estranged from society, alternative gender identities, Aids patients, heroin addicts, and urban subcultures, the consequences of their American freedom.[6]
- Key methodologies, processes and techniques: Photographs out of desire, empathy and love.[7] Created during her own heroin addiction.
- Memory Lost, 2019: 500 words
- Context: In 2017, she founded Prescription Addiction Intervention Now.[10]
- Description: Images of friends laughing, crying and having sex, landscapes and skies, people in nature, religious icons, people in water, fire, drugs, beds and rooms.
- Relations to social, political and cultural issues: A discussion as to whether dope is worse for the memory than coke.[11]
- Key methodologies, process and techniques: The low quality and high noise of the images show the distance and age of memories.
- What I think about her work: The mix of still images and short footage, the negative slow music and recordings of phone message and interviews give the photographs more power to make viewers absorbed in the narratives. I think it’s overall successful to show the messy, confusing and lost memories due to the darkness of addiction and convey the addicts’ miserable experiences. However, if paying attention to each photograph, I doubt the meaning of some single photos’ existence in the slideshow.
PART 3: SUMMARY (Paragraph 7): 200 words
- Key ideas behind her work and how they relate to photography
- Getting more positive power and impact. The themes shift as she gets different experiences.
- What I think about her work
- Compared to her photography skills, I think she’s more skilled at connecting with people and seeing people’s emotions, which gives her photos powerful emotions that viewers can feel.
- How I would describe her work
- Goldin’s medium is more slideshow or photobook instead of photography.
547 words without footnotes + Bibliography
Bibliography
Buck, Louisa, ‘Nan Goldin brings her empathy and activism to London’ (21 November 2019) https://www.theartnewspaper.com/blog/nan-goldin-brings-her-empathy-and-activism-to-london [Accessed 23 November 2019]
Chrisafis, Angelique, ‘My camera has saved my life’ (22 May 2008) https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/may/22/photography.art [Accessed 25 November 2019]
Christov-Bakargiev, Carolyn, ‘Nan Goldin. Devil’s playground’ https://www.castellodirivoli.org/en/mostra/nan-goldin-devils-playground/ [Accessed 25 November 2019]
Garratt, Sheryl, ‘The dark room’ (6 January 2002) https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2002/jan/06/features.magazine27 [Accessed 25 November 2019]
Goldin, Nan, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (New York: Aperture Foundation, 2012)
Harris, Melissa, and Michael Famighetti, Aperture Foundation (eds.), Aperture Conversations: 1985 to the Present (Switzerland: AVA Publishing SA, 2018)
INDEPENDENT, ‘The Devil’s Playground by Nan Goldin’ (11 January 2004) https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-devils-playground-by-nan-goldin-73230.html [Accessed 25 November 2019]
Licursi, E. P., ‘RYAN MCGINLEY’S EXUBERANT DOWNTOWN, 1999-2003’ (3 March 2017) https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/ryan-mcginleys-exuberant-downtown-1999-2003 [Accessed 24 November 2019]
McCord, Brooke, ‘Your ultimate guide to Nan Goldin’ (11 January 2017) https://www.dazeddigital.com/photography/article/34062/1/your-ultimate-guide-to-nan-goldin[Accessed 25 November 2019]
MOCA, Nan Goldin – The Ballad of Sexual Dependency – MOCA U – MOCAtv, online video recording, YouTube, 6 December 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B6nMlajUqU[accessed 22 November 2019]
MARIAN GOODMAN GALLERY, ‘Nan Goldin Sirens’ https://www.mariangoodman.com/exhibitions/351-nan-goldin-sirens/ [Accessed 25 November 2019]
Spindler, Amy M., ‘A Death Tarnishes Fashion’s ‘Heroin Look’’ (20 May 1997) https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/20/style/a-death-tarnishes-fashion-s-heroin-look.html[Accessed 23 November 2019]
Searle, Adrian, ‘Nan Goldin review – Gut-wrenching, brilliant and beautiful. I cannot turn away’ https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/nov/14/nan-goldin-review-marian-goodman-gallery-london-gut-wrenching-brilliant-beautiiful [Accessed 25 November 2019]
Tate, Nan Goldin – ‘My Work Comes from Empathy and Love’ | TateShots, online video recording, YouTube, 1 May 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_rVyt-ojpY [Accessed 25 November 2019]
Tillman, Lynne, ‘ART; A New Chapter of Nan Goldin’s Diary’ (16 November 2003) https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/16/books/art-a-new-chapter-of-nan-goldin-s-diary.html[Accessed 23 November 2019]
[1] Nan Goldin, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (New York: Aperture Foundation, 2012).
[2] Melissa Harris, Michael Famighetti, Aperture Foundation (eds.), Aperture Conversations: 1985 to the Present (Switzerland: AVA Publishing SA, 2018).
[3] MOCA, Nan Goldin – The Ballad of Sexual Dependency – MOCA U – MOCAtv, online video recording, YouTube, 6 December 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B6nMlajUqU [accessed 22 November 2019].
[4] ‘A Death Tarnishes Fashion’s ‘Heroin Look’’, Amy M. Spindler (20 May 1997) https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/20/style/a-death-tarnishes-fashion-s-heroin-look.html [Accessed 23 November 2019].
[5] ‘RYAN MCGINLEY’S EXUBERANT DOWNTOWN, 1999-2003’, E. P. Licursi (3 March 2017) https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/ryan-mcginleys-exuberant-downtown-1999-2003 [Accessed 24 November 2019].
[6] My view on this has been inspired by my reading of ‘ART; A New Chapter of Nan Goldin’s Diary’, Lynne Tillman (16 November 2003) https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/16/books/art-a-new-chapter-of-nan-goldin-s-diary.html [Accessed 23 November 2019]. ‘Nan Goldin Sirens’, MARIAN GOODMAN GALLERY https://www.mariangoodman.com/exhibitions/351-nan-goldin-sirens/ [Accessed 25 November 2019]. ‘The Devil’s Playground by Nan Goldin’, INDEPENDENT (11 January 2004) https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-devils-playground-by-nan-goldin-73230.html [Accessed 25 November 2019]. ‘NAN GOLDIN: DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND’, <http://www.stunned.org/goldin.htm> [Accessed 25 November 2019]. ‘Your ultimate guide to Nan Goldin’, Brooke McCord (11 January 2017) https://www.dazeddigital.com/photography/article/34062/1/your-ultimate-guide-to-nan-goldin [Accessed 25 November 2019].
[7] My view on this has been inspired by my reading of ‘My camera has saved my life’, Angelique Chrisafis (22 May 2008) https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/may/22/photography.art [Accessed 25 November 2019]. Tate, Nan Goldin – ‘My Work Comes from Empathy and Love’ | TateShots, online video recording, YouTube, 1 May 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_rVyt-ojpY [Accessed 25 November 2019].
[8] ‘Nan Goldin. Devil’s playground’, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev https://www.castellodirivoli.org/en/mostra/nan-goldin-devils-playground/[Accessed 25 November 2019].
[9] ‘The dark room’, Sheryl Garratt (6 January 2002) https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2002/jan/06/features.magazine27[Accessed 25 November 2019].
[10] ‘Nan Goldin brings her empathy and activism to London’, Louisa Buck (21 November 2019) https://www.theartnewspaper.com/blog/nan-goldin-brings-her-empathy-and-activism-to-london [Accessed 23 November 2019].
[11] ‘Nan Goldin review – Gut-wrenching, brilliant and beautiful. I cannot turn away’, Adrian Searle https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/nov/14/nan-goldin-review-marian-goodman-gallery-london-gut-wrenching-brilliant-beautiiful [Accessed 25 November 2019].
Eva Wang 