Nan Goldin

After reading the Nan Goldin piece in Illuminations, I feel as though her work cannot be fully appreciated without understanding the bond that Goldin had with her friends and models. Goldin's explanation of the infatuation that first drew her to take photographs of drag queens is what makes the work emotional and interesting. Pairing the photographs with Goldin's remarks on "gender euphoria" and creating a "third gender" via dressing in drag make the photographs impossible to dismiss, as they have clearly captured something that until Goldin's infatuation, mainstream photography had dismissed. Where others saw freaks or societal pariahs, Goldin saw beauty and possibility, and was able to glorify their lifestyle through her work. Perhaps most impressively is the extent to which Goldin immersed herself in her friends' world to create the work. Although she was initially an outsider, Goldin was able to gain the trust of an entire group of people, and captured an intimacy that cannot be faked.