Book Review- Nan Goldin by Guido Costa

 

Guido Costa, 2006. Nan Goldin (Phaidon 55's). 2nd Edition. Phaidon Press. 

 

 

This book, written by Guido Costa is an outline of work produced by Nan Goldin. Not only does it present photographys throughout Goldin’s carrier, but also gives an insight into the life and meaning of Goldin’s photography itself. The book lets the reader into the life of Goldin, her work and her very personality. Also, the subject of her portrait work featuring a lot of her friends and her ‘family’.

The writer, Gido Costa, starts with an introduction into how he came to know Goldin, and how he became a part of her work and her life, as he says “and her ‘family’, … is also mine.”

Throughout the book, the reader is given examples of Goldin’s work featured throughout her life and career, as well as different emotional and personal periods through Goldin’s life in particular. You are told many intimate secrets of Goldin’s relationships, whether be friendships or sexual relationships, and also the intimate moments in Goldin’s friends and families lives. This gives the book a sense of depth, and creates a sense of sympathy towards Goldin, and an atmosphere of admiration for Goldin’s way of life and her career in photography.

For me, this book helped me mentally connect with Goldin, and became an inspiration for work that I will continue to create in the future. I understand the presentation of despair, happiness, desperation and loneliness that is evident in a lot of Goldin’s work, and see Goldin as intriguing and inspiring as a photographer.