Nan Goldin
[Photographer, b. 1953, Washington, D.C., lives in New York and Paris.]
… I wrote myself in as the lover. Sometimes, the obsession lasted for years. It was photography as the sublimation of sex, a means of seduction, and a way to remain a crucial part of my subjects’ lives. A chance to touch someone with a camera rather than physically.
I became a photographer to make a record that no one could revise, and now anyone can revise it.
My work changes as I change. I feel an artist’s work has to change, otherwise you become a replication of yourself.
If you took a million pictures you were lucky to come out with one or two gems.
I’m not responsible for anything like social media, am I? Tell me I’m not. It can’t be true. But if it is, I feel terrible.
People in the pictures say my camera is as much a part of being with me as any other aspect of knowing me. It’s as if my hand were a camera.
During the two years my friends and I lived together I took pictures of them almost daily. When we picked up the 3 x 5 snapshots at the corner drugstore there was always a competition to see who had the most pictures of themselves in the pile.
A lot of people seem to think that art or photography is about the way things look, or the surface of things. That's not what it’s about for me. It’s really about relationships and feelings... it’s really hard for me to do commercial work because people kind of want me to do a Nan Goldin. They don’t understand that it’s not about a style or a look or a setup. It’s about emotional obsession and empathy.
