See Nan Goldin’s The Ballad of Sexual Dependency in London

The photographs from Nan Goldin’s indelible e book, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, are being introduced of their entirety for the primary time within the UK. The exhibition at Gagosian, London, marks 40 years for the reason that publication of Goldin’s seminal photograph collection and options all 126 pictures from the unique monograph. Shot between 1973 and 1986, Ballad not solely immortalised the milieu of downtown New York, however, in its afterlife, has influenced generations of artists, writers and thinkers, in addition to emboldening and shifting all who select to spend any time with it. 

Originally conceived as a slideshow initially introduced in nightclubs and bars in addition to galleries (at the moment on present on this format as a part of This Will Not End Well at Milan’s Pirelli HangarBicocca), her method to portraiture disturbed the conventions of what was formally thought of artwork images. In the spontaneity, unflinching honesty and intimacy of its photographs, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency was, as Goldin herself places it, “the diary I let individuals learn“.

“I don’t select people in order to photograph them; I photograph directly from my life. These pictures come out of relationships, not observation,” Goldin says, in an exhibition textual content. “They are an invitation to my world, but now they have become a record of the generation that was lost. To show The Ballad in its entirety 40 years after I published the book, is to reaffirm that desire for transformation and the difficulty of connection and coupling are still true to our world. I’m still impressed that generation after generation finds their own stories in The Ballad, keeping it alive.”

Nan Goldin’s The Ballad of Sexual Dependency is operating at Gagosian Davies Street, London, till 21 March 2026