New Nan Goldin exhibition spotlights her 1970s Boston era

Last year Nan Goldin happened across a box of photographs taken in Boston in the early 70s when she was moving studios from the Bowery to Brooklyn. 50 of these images – which have remained largely unpublished until now – make up a new show at Guido Costa Projects in Turin. The exhibition looks back to Goldin’s Boston era as a turning point in her career, marking her first steps into the decade of work she coined The Ballad of Sexual Dependency.

Best known for her unflinching photographs of drugs, sex and violence amidst the post-punk and queer subcultures of New York, Goldin’s raw approach to portraiture pulled the carpet out from underneath vernacular photography and, back in 2003, The New York Times credited her with forging a new genre. Her empathy for alternative sexuality also long anticipated the current storm of debates surrounding gender issues, and she has said her interest in photographing sexual minorities stemmed from a desire to celebrate them as an another gender option.

The small-format photographs on display in Turin are taken from her time spent immersed in Boston’s gay and transsexual demi-monde, a scene the then-young photographer was introduced to by David Armstrong. Distinguished by its striking ease and urgency, this early work shows Goldin on the cusp of becoming a bona fide creative force.

Nan Goldin is on show at Guido Costa Projects in Turin until 12 September.