All The Beauty and the Bloodshed
Ivy on the way to Newbury St., Boston Garden, Boston, 1973© Nan Goldin. Courtesy the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery New York, Paris and London
the truth AS TOLD BY
NAN GOLDIN & Laura poitras
Is there anything more potent than the truth? We would argue yes, when an Oscar winning filmmaker explores your truth.
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is a documentary by Laura Poitras about photographer Nan Goldin's life, work and activism. It explodes onto the screen in a storm of vulnerability, authenticity and courage.
Like many great photographers, the camera gives Goldin a shield and a tool to survive. The subject of much of her work is her own life and the lives of those around her.
The Ballad of Sexual Dependency ©Nan Goldin
Goldin is known for her intimate, raw and personal images that provide insight into the complexities of relationships, sexuality, gender, and addiction.
Nan in the bathroom with roommate, Boston Photograph by Nan Goldin as featured in Laura Poitras’s new documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed. ©Nan Goldin
In All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Goldin speaks truth to power, and Poitras is there to capture the journey. Her quarry is the Sackler family. A dynasty held in high esteem by the art world, but their wealth has a dark side, a pharmaceutical empire built on America's opioid addiction. As Goldin says, it’s personal. Her addiction to opioids nearly took her life. The Sackler name sits above the door of some of the world’s most prestigious museums and Goldin demands a response from these institutions. Many of these same galleries have Goldin’s work in their collections.
Goldin risks everything to bring the Sackler family to account. She believes she will be obliterated by the power of the family and their army of lawyers. Her friends warn her that she is right to be worried.
Image by Nan Goldin ©Nan Goldin
Goldin and her band of activist friends do the impossible. Although it is not the financial accountability they had hoped for (Perdue declared bankruptcy and it is reported that the Sackler family had syphoned billions of dollars out of the company for years in anticipation of the sea of law suits), they watched the veneer of respectability torn from the facade of galleries and museums. For Goldin, it is a hard-won battle. Her early work as an activist dealing with the AIDS crisis led the way for change and now she fights on in honour of her own life and those who have died from OxyContin.
As Henri Cartier-Bresson said in The Minds Eye: Writings on Photography and Photographers, “To photograph is to hold one’s breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality.” With Goldin’s photographs, one can feel all her senses lining up to catch that elusive moment, the singular image you can’t tear your eyes from. There is so much life in her pictures.
Poitras is equally aware of the power and choice of framing a moment, both in the editing and in the filmmaking process. We hear her voice off camera asking questions, a gentle nudge towards an uncomfortable topic. She is reminding us that we are looking through her lens. Together these two make a mighty team. One sharing with absolute honesty, the other driving the vehicle.
Two formidable artists in lockstep; both searching for the same thing.
Nan Goldin, Ivy’s back, Boston, 1973. Courtesy the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery, © Nan Goldin.