Nan Goldin
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| Transsexuals |
Nan Goldin is one of the most controversial photographers of all time; she is now ages 63 and is still one of the most famous photographers of all time. She lives and also photographs in New York, Paris and Berlin, forever seeking inspiration from her friends and adopted family. She describes her education as attending a hippie school, which did not consist of classes. They were given Polaroid cameras; this is where her interest in photographer grew. She soon became the school photographer and started photographing her best friend David Armstrong and then moved on to the other kids in school. She would tend to photograph the same subject matter repeatedly rather, photographing different models each day. Nan grew up in a modest house hold, a family which would encourage the term ‘Don’t tell the neighbours' anything that happened had to be kept at home, any problem in they were not spoke about outside the house. However Nan she is an expressive character so she wanted to explore and share her photographs this maybe were her interesting in photographing taboo topic began. She couldn’t contain the modest, she wanted to explore issue and topic, which people were uneasy about and didn’t want to talk about.
Nan describes her work as diarist and portraits rather than documentary photography and she mainly uses film photography in her work. She finds the history of other people interesting. One photograph cannot represent someone’s past but a series of them can. She photographed her friends who were transsexual, homosexuals and those who were suffering and dying from aids. These are all taboo topic in which people do not like to talk about. But not Nan Goldin she wanted to express them and celebrate them. She photographs topics, which are emotional, personal, and inmate to her life. We can see this through the angels as which each photograph is being taken from. Most of her work is formatted in way that the audience feels as though they are watching from a distance. One of her most inspirational photographs was the one, which she took of her ex-boyfriend. The series of photographs displayed an abusive relationship. She focuses on the same subject matter as I am currently am. She photographed the journey of their relationship and how he would beat her up. There are some very intimate and explicit shots, which make the audience, feel uneasy and shocked.
The photograph appear to have a grainy look which all
of her photographs, this is because they are taken using film. In this image
the model is looking into the mirror however the expression on her face is not
a very pleasant one. The model looks as though they had been crying. The model
is Nan’s partner; she was the focus on a hand full of her photographs. The
image displays that the model is not a happy relationships. She is put make up
on which could suggest she is getting ready to go out or cover up and scars and
bruises. There are two main light sourced in the image. There is a direct light
source from directly above the subject. There is a striking artificial light,
which appears to be coming from the left hand side. I believe that the light
may be coming from the flash from the camera.
The silence is so loud in this image, recorded right
after Nan and boyfriend at the time had an argument. We are not aware, the
argument lead to something physical, however we do know that they were both
involved in an abusive relationship were he used to beat her up. Objectively
the tones and the lighting in the photograph are fairly warm, there is one
light source coming from the left hand side. The light is coming from the same
side that the abuser sat, this could portray the power that he had in
comparison to the power that she had and how she lived in his shadow. However
his body language does not suggest he is a man with power, but suggest that he
is fed up and feel bad for whatever encounter him and Nan have just had. Her
hand is blocking any sight of eye contact also suggesting that’s she, scared
and fairly upset also as result of their encounter too.
Response
When I first started taking photographs I photographed
random people and interesting grungy dark scenes also in the style of Nan
Goldin. However I then realise that this didn’t directly link to my chosen
personal investigation of Domestic Abuse. So I then followed an individual
around in the hope that I would be able to capture emotion in their face
however this again was not successful. So I then staged a various scenes of
domestic abuse scenes in the hopes that they would be successful this time
round.
For my actual Nan Godlin response I then decided to
work in the same media as she had done so by experimenting with taking images
on a film camera. I went out and used a disposable camera as it gave the grainy
look, which I was trying to achieve. I took images of different scene, when
using a film camera I discovered that I could not dedicate one shoot using
whilst using the camera as I would have images which were all fairly similar
and so I followed my friends around in some of the images and set up scenes in
the others.
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| The smile that she wears... |
I feel as though the first two photographs represented
in my response demonstrate a victim who wears a smile in public in front of
various people however when she alone she is deeply sadden. Victims of domestic
abuse tend to be closed of to society and feel a sense of isolation. I was
extremely impressed with the effect that this image created.
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| …is different to how she feels |
For this photograph with my model, the film and chemical seemed to have leaked onto the image however, it gives a dramatic effect to the photograph. It appears to be but more dramatic. The positive thing about using a film camera is that it show what the person was doing in that moment in time. It almost freezes the moment and gives a truthful image.
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I was extremely pleased with the shoot I completed on my
film camera. They created realism. In my work I wanted to represent the true
and the realism in domestic abuse and I felt as though by using a disposal
camera it captured that look perfectly. The photographs are spontaneous this is
an effect which I would not have been able to achieve when using’s a digital
camera. I feel as though it would have been much more successful, photographing
a domestic violence victim following them in their very day life to show a true
representation of their life style. The victims may not always be unhappy, they
may share happy times with their abuser.
For my next shoot I would like to use a film camera again,
and this time I would like to focus on the effects of the abuse, for example
the bruises and the emotional effects of the abuse. I also want to try and
include different types of abuse into my work to demonstrate that domestic
abuse may not always be physical.
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