A month or two ago I watched All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, a documentary film about activist and photographer Nan Goldin. Goldin’s photographic work in the 1970s and 1980s largely documented her friends and surrounding community, usually presented in the form of ever-evolving slideshows, with themes heavy on relationships, sex, queerness, and the AIDS epidemic. The film itself is powerful, detailing Goldin’s activism against the makers of pharmaceutical opiates and their involvement in the nation’s opioid crisis, while also chronicling her rising art career. As the film went on, there was one theme I kept seeing in her photographs that struck me: people in bedrooms.
Greer and Robert on the bed, NYC by Nan Goldin
Nan and Brian in bed, NYC by Nan Goldin
Odalisque of the Bowery, NYC by Nan Goldin
Lynelle on my bed, NYC by Nan Goldin
Some of the images feel intimate, such as the first two above, seemingly capturing couples at the end of the night or waking up in the morning. It hardly feels like the photographer is there (although in fact she is literally there in the case of Nan and Brian in bed, NYC.) Others, like the fourth image Lynelle in my bed, NYC, feel half-posed. I imagine Nan spending a lot of time with her friends, winding up in each other’s homes and beds. At times, they barely pay attention to the camera always in Goldin’s hand; at others, they mug for her.
You can google “Nan Goldin bedroom photos” and find a long gallery of results. The fact that she did so much of this is striking to me. I am so rarely in my friends’ bedrooms, and they so rarely in mine. There is an intimacy in the sheer frequency she finds herself in these settings that I almost feel jealous of.
Maybe this is what inspired me. I found myself wanting to photograph people in their bedrooms. I made a Pinterest board. And I texted my friend Amy, who has a lovely bedroom, and is always game to sit in front of a camera. This is the beginning of a series.
All photos in this post, with the exception of the top four taken by Nan Goldin, were shot on Kodak UltraMax 400 35mm film and a Minolta X-700. Thank you for reading, you’re beautiful.