“I used to think that I could never lose anyone if I photographed them enough. In fact, my pictures show me how much I’ve lost.”
―Nan Goldin
Last night, I went to the movies, saw a documentary on The Big Screen. It’s been a while. I sat in a row of photographers, ate popcorn with an excess of butter and watched a film about the photographer Nan Goldin.
All The Beauty and the Bloodshed.
Damn, she’s amazing.
I won’t pass along too many details here because I hope you might watch it, when it comes around.
This documentary, like the subject’s work, is a reminder of how art is entwined with living, surviving, being an expressive human in all variations of the self. It’s a reminder of the importance of direct political action, From ACT UP to protests calling out the Sackler family for their massive wealth-building off other people’s pain and addiction, fueling a global opioid crisis. The documentary illuminates the ongoing political action inherent in being a creative, brilliant mind in a body navigating a world of constructed limitations and harm often embedded in gendered expectations, censure and dynamics. There’s so much beauty. I’d say it’s unconventional beauty, but what are those conventions, anyway?
Do you know the work of Nan Goldin?
I have at times used her photos in classes, as a point of entry into writing from visual art. Faces, bodies, apartments…frail and faulty loving and enthusiastic, sometimes broken humanity comes across as so much more beautiful than the perfection we’re supposed to want.
Hope you’re doing okay,
xo
ps—Shout out to Bellen for the invite! Good plan! :)