Nan Goldin’s The Ballad of Sexual Dependency remains one of the most visceral and influential photobooks of the late 20th century — an unflinching visual diary of intimacy, addiction, love, and damage. First published by Aperture in 1986 and reissued here in 2012, it collects Goldin’s raw 35mm snapshots of her extended chosen family: artists, lovers, drag queens, addicts, and outcasts orbiting the Downtown New York and Boston scenes of the late ’70s and early ’80s.
The book reads like a private slideshow made public — a sequencing of vulnerability, bruises, parties, loss, and survival, its rhythm close to cinema or confession. The colour is flash-hot and immediate, grainy and intimate. Goldin appears throughout the book, not just as photographer but as character — documenting her own relationships with brutal tenderness. The cover image, Nan and Brian in bed, New York City 1983, has become one of the most recognised and emotionally fraught portraits in modern photography.
This is the 2012 Aperture hardcover reissue — faithful in layout and emotional force, with updated production design and the same unforgettable arc. A landmark title that continues to resonate across generations of image-makers and diarists.
Technical Sheet
Title: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency
Artist / Author: Nan Goldin
Date: 2012 reissue (originally 1986)
Technique / Printing Method: Offset printing
Medium / Materials: Hardcover with dust jacket
Dimensions: 24.5 x 28.5 cm
Pages: Approx. 150
Publisher / Editor: Aperture
ISBN: 978-1-59711-208-6
Condition: NEW
