Nan Goldin is an American photographer known for her visual stories incorporating the lives and concerns of LGBTQ people.
Biography
Nan Goldin was born in 1953 in Washington, DC. Her family moved to Boston after her birth, and Goldin suffered through a number of childhood traumas, including her older sister’s suicide. At the age of 13, Goldin left home and moved to Lincoln, Massachusetts, where she lived in foster homes. One of her school friends there introduced her to photography, and she began using black and white film to document her friends and surroundings.
In 1973, Goldin held her first solo photography show in Boston, showing her journey with gay and transgender communities. In the following year she began to attend the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. A number of the photographs she took at this time were later included in her 1981 collection The Ballad of Sexual Dependency.
After graduation, Goldin moved to New York City, where she documented the post-punk music scene, the city’s vibrant gay subculture, and the hard-drug use of the Bowery neighborhood. Her snapshots of drug use, violence and aggression, and autobiographical moments were shown in nightclubs and galleries, and later gathered into published collections.
In 2006, Goldin launched her first moving pictures exhibition in New York by the name of Chasing a Ghost. The exhibition included a three-screen slide and video presentation named Sisters, Saints, & Sybils, which involved her sister Barbara’s suicide and Goldin’s struggle to make meaning through images and narratives.
Goldin continues to work in photography, often producing commercial fashion photography, and has received a number of awards, including the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2006, the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography in 2007, the Edward MacDowell Medal in 2012, and the Centenary Medal and Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society in 2018.
Nan Goldin Photographs
Goldin’s work is often presented in slide-show form and has been shown in galleries, exhibitions, and film festivals. One of her most famous slide show works is a 45-minute show in which 800 pictures are displayed. The main themes of her early pictures are love, sexuality, gender, and domesticity, and have often depicted women looking in mirrors, drag queens, sexual acts, girls in bathrooms and barrooms, and the culture of obsession and dependency.
The Market for Goldin’s Photographs
Nan Goldin’s photographs sell for thousands of dollars, especially photographs depicting intimate scenes. Depending upon the subject and format, Goldin’s photographs can sell for anywhere from four figures up to $25,000. Some notable sales include Butch in the Tub (1998) for $12,500, Pink sky from the airplane (2000) for $15,000, and Yogo in the Mirror (1992) for $25,000.
Appraise and Sell Nan Goldin Photographs
If you have any works by Nan Goldin, get in touch with our experts at Revere Auctions. If you would like to sell your Goldin photographs, you can auction them at our location in St. Paul, Minnesota. We also offer our services online.
You can contact us anytime for a free auction estimate if you want to sell photographs by Nan Goldin. We have a very simple process. After you send us the photos of the work, our experts will take a look, analyze, and provide you an estimate of the amount the artwork is likely to reach at auction.
If you need an appraisal for Goldin’s work, we provide a certified appraisal report that can be used for estate taxes, donations, and insurance coverage. Our appraisals are compliant with Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice and are accepted by insurance companies, charity agencies, and the IRS.