Nan Goldin - New Collection

Nan Goldin, Mark tattooing Mark, Boston, 1978, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased in celebration of the National Gallery of Australia's 40th anniversary, 2022 © Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin, Mark tattooing Mark, Boston, 1978, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased in celebration of the National Gallery of Australia's 40th anniversary, 2022 © Nan Goldin

The ballad of sexual dependency is a defining artwork of the 1980s. Nan Goldin’s extended photographic study of her chosen family – her ‘tribe’ – began life as a slide show screened in the clubs and bars of New York where Goldin and her friends worked and played. The slide show was then distilled to a series of 126 photographs, which has recently become part of the National Gallery’s collection.

Goldin takes photographs to connect, to keep the people she loves in her memory. She is committed to the idea that photography can faithfully record a time and place, and do so in a way that has real social purpose. Using a documentary, snapshot style, she lays bare her life in the manner of a family album. We see her alongside her friends and lovers as they live their lives – hanging out, falling in and out of love, having children. But this is a community that would be decimated by HIV/AIDS and drug-related deaths. The balladhas become as much a testament to how much Goldin and her community have lost, as it is a record of the look and feel of a past time.

Goldin refers to The ballad as her ‘public diary’, stating that her photographs ‘come out of relationships, not observation’. The work’s overriding themes, she has stated, are those of love and empathy and the tension between autonomy and interdependence in relationships—relationships in which all genders struggle to find a common language.

Curator: Anne O’Hehir, Curator, Photography

N.B: Check NGA website for affiliated Nan Goldin events

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September

Sydney: The first major solo exhibition by one of Australia’s most innovative and unflinching photomedia artists.

October

Melbourne: Photography – Real & Imagined is the largest survey of the NGV's Photography collection and features more than 270 photographs from the past 125 years.

November

Sydney: The exhibition delves into the State Library of NSW's vast collection of two million images, showcasing 400 photos – many displayed for the first time.

Sydney-based photographer Tony Maniaty's latest exhibition features large-scale images from travels (2020-2023) in France, Britain, Greece, Turkey and Australia exploring concepts of beauty and fragility.

Showcasing the work of Advanced Diploma of Photography graduates, and second year Bachelor of Photography students Photography Studies College

December

Melbourne 9 December. Lingam.K has exhibited internationally, including in Iceland, China, Singapore, and Tokyo. Free event