Industry Inspirations

Inspiration in the Media Industry:

Nan Goldin is an American photographer, her work acts as a visual autobiography documenting herself and those around her. Her work mostly shows those of the LGBT community and the opioid epidemic.

Goldin has held a number of exhibitions and shows; her first solo show was held in Boston, 1973, where she showcased her photographic journey with the city's gay and transgender communities. At 18, Goldin “fell in with the drag queens” living with them and photographing them while living in downtown Boston. Goldin admired and respected their sexuality, and stated that her desire was to show them as a third gender, and show them with a lot of respect and love, to glorify them and that she admires ‘people who can recreate themselves and manifest their fantasies publicly’.

Goldin attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where her professors told her to go back and photograph the queens again, however Golden admitted her work was not the same as when she had lived with them. Goldin graduated in 1977/1978, where she had mostly worked with Cibachrome prints.

After she had graduated, she moved to New York City and began documenting the post-punk new-wave music scene, along with post-stonewall gay subculture of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Goldin later published a book with the help of Marvin Heiferman, Mark Holborn, and Suzanne Fletcher, and she describes it as a “diary [she] lets people read”.

Goldin has undertaken commercial fashion photography:

for the Australian label Scanlan & Theodore’s Spring/Summer 2010 campaign, shot with model Erin Wasson.

Italian luxury label Bottega Veneta’s Spring/Summer 2010 campaign with models Sean O’Pry and Anya Kazakova.

Shoemaker Jimmy Choo in 2011 with model Linda Vojtova.

Dior in 2013, 1000 LIVES, featuring Robert Pattinson.

In 2018, Goldin was a part of a collaborative range from the clothing brand Supreme’s Spring/Summer 2018 collection. This collection consisted of jackets, sweatshirts, and t-shirts in a variety of colours with designs titled things such as “Nan as a dominatrix”, “Misty and Jimmy Paulette”, and “Kim in Rhinestone”.

How Nan Goldin has inspired/influences me and my choices:

Goldin’s work greatly inspires me, I love how she’s able to capture such raw intimate and personal moments and use those images to showcase how life is like for her and those closest to her- like her own visual autobiography. I especially feel connected to her work which depicts those of the LGBT+ community, as I myself am a part of said community; that being said, i believe being able to preserve and share memories with others and help them feel connected or understood with those images is a wonderful thing, which is why i would like to pursue a career in photography.