The Ballad of Sexual Dependency: Print & Book Set

“I was never without a camera in those years and I photographed my friends constantly. I published the pictures in this book so that nostalgia could never color my past.”

—Nan Goldin

Aperture is pleased to release this signed, limited-edition print by Nan Goldin, accompanied by a signed copy of the newest printing of The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. This latest printing features remastered reproductions and an updated afterword by the artist.

First published in 1986, Nan Goldin’s The Ballad of Sexual Dependency is a visual diary chronicling the struggles for intimacy and understanding among the friends and lovers whom Goldin describes as her tribe. These photographs depict a lifestyle that was visceral, charged and seething with raw appetite for living. Thirty-five years later, Goldin’s lush color photography and candid style still demand that the viewer encounter their profound intensity head on. The book’s influence on photography and other aesthetic realms has continued to grow, making it a classic of contemporary photography. In 2020, Aperture magazine returned to this iconic work with its “Ballads” issue, featuring an exclusive interview with Goldin and a portfolio of images curated by the artist and dedicated to her influences.

The proceeds from this print sale benefit PAIN, VOCAL-NY, and Aperture.

PAIN (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) addresses the crisis of the ongoing Drug War by targeting the pharmaceutical companies that have profited off the addictions and deaths of over half a million Americans. Funds from this print sale will go toward future actions to hold Big Pharma accountable, advocate for harm reduction, and pressure our government to decriminalize drugs and provide life-saving treatments for people who use drugs.

VOCAL-NY (Voices Of Community Activists & Leaders) is a statewide grassroots membership organization that builds power among low-income people affected by HIV/AIDS, the drug war, mass incarceration, and homelessness in order to create healthy and just communities. This is accomplished through community organizing, leadership development, advocacy, direct services, participatory research, and direct action.

Flaming Car, Salisbury Beach, N.H., 1979
Pigment print
Image size: 9 1/4 x 6 3/16 inches
Paper size: 9 x 10 inches
Edition of 250, accompanied by a signed copy of The Ballad of Sexual Dependency 

This offer is limited to one per collector.  

Nan Goldin (born in Washington, DC, 1953) began photographing at the age of fifteen. She received a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 1977. In 1978, she moved to New York, where she continued to document her “extended family.” These photographs, along with those taken in London, Berlin, and Provincetown, Massachusetts, became the subject of her slide shows and first book, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (Aperture, 1986).  In December 2021, the 21st printing of The Ballad was released, which includes a new afterword by Nan, the first in 10 years. Goldin’s other books include The Other Side (1993), I’ll Be Your Mirror (1996), Ten Years After (1997), The Devil’s Playground (2004), and The Beautiful Smile (2008). An expanded and updated edition of The Other Side was published by Steidl in Fall 2019. In 1985, her work was included in the Whitney Biennial. In 1996, a major retrospective of her work opened at the Whitney and toured to museums throughout Europe. Goldin has received numerous awards, including the Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in France, the Hasselblad Award and the Edward MacDowell Medal. Her work has been shown recently at the Tate Modern, London; Louvre Museum, France; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam, Netherlands. In 2017, Goldin formed the activist group P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now), which stages protests aimed at US pharmaceutical drug companies. Goldin’s upcoming major retrospective exclusively focuses on her slide shows and video works, and will open at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, in October 2022. Goldin lives in Berlin, Paris, and New York.