
Suzanne Crying, NYC
<p>Nan Goldin has said: "To photograph from your own life has these components of risk and uncontrollable possibilities and subtext that you can't impose upon photos; they come from experience." For thirty-five years, it has been her obsession to record her world, capitalizing on photography's potential for immediacy, emotion, and anecdote. Goldin's pictures, however, present subjects living outside or against the conventional family life shown in typical snapshots. These photographs also bear witness to moments of utmost intimacy—lovemaking, violence, addiction, hospitalization—and to the rollercoaster of accompanying emotions. <em>Suzanne, Crying, NYC</em> is emblematic of her approach, and its power is all the more remarkable if we contemplate when, if ever, someone took our photograph while we cried.</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1985
- Medium
- Silver dye-bleach print
- Dimensions
- Image: 39.5 × 60 cm (15 9/16 × 23 5/8 in.); Paper: 50.9 × 61 cm (20 1/16 × 24 1/16 in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Artist
- Nan Goldin
Artist

Photography
Influenced by the direct and unflinching style of such photographers as Helmut Newton, Diane Arbus, August Sander, Nan Goldin is most well known for her autobiographical images that depict deeply personal relationships. Her most famed work, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (1980–86), is a slideshow accompanied by music, with images set within her life in New York City during the 1980s. First exhibited in the 1985 Whitney Biennial, the work continues to resonate with audiences; it was displayed as recently as 2016 at the Museum of Modern Art, New York
New York, USA and Berlin, Germany
Full artist profile →More
More by Nan Goldin
Lambs Ears (for Parkett no. 57)
1999 · Chromogenic print
Self-Portrait on the train, Germany
1992 · Photograph, colour, Cibachrome print, on paper mounted onto board
Jimmy Paulette and Tabboo! undressing, NYC
1991 · Photograph, colour, Cibachrome print, on paper mounted onto board
Misty and Jimmy Paulette in a taxi, NYC
1991 · Photograph, colour, Cibachrome print, on paper mounted onto board
Gina at Bruce's Dinner Party, New York City
1991 · Silver dye bleach print, printed 2006
Clarence in the Window with Gun
1989 · Silver dye-bleach print
Record
Verified by WattsOS- Artist
- Nan Goldin
- Year
- 1985
- Medium
- Silver dye-bleach print
- Dimensions
- Image: 39.5 × 60 cm (15 9/16 × 23 5/8 in.); Paper: 50.9 × 61 cm (20 1/16 × 24 1/16 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1985-084943
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified





