Nan and Brian in Bed

Nan and Brian in Bed
Nan Goldin
1983, Silver Dye Bleach Print

This photograph, which served as the cover of Goldin's 1986 book, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, which the artist describes as "the diary I let people read," conveys a plethora of possible scenes without a word. Goldin, who's body of work largely focuses on the drug addled subculture that permeated Manhattan's lower east side in the 1980s, gives her male companion a livid look, apparently annoyed at his post-coital behavior. He smokes a cigarette facing away from her, unaware of or simply ignoring her gaze. In the background a poster of another shirtless man with a cigarette suggests that "Brian" is emulating an older masculine ideal. This subtext can be applied further to suggest that that's all free will ever is. Rebellion is simply conforming to an older image of rebellion.