similarity in other photographers work
While researching the Dairy, I came across other photographer name several times. The photographer is Nan Goldin. The reason her name appears in relation to Corinne Day diary many times is because Nan Goldin published a photographic diary as well. In her diary she documented herself and her friends in different moments including intimate photographs, which compel together her daily life.
In this post I will compare their work (in relation to their dairy), and I will try to discover what brought both of them to publish such an intimate work?
This post will answer both of my questions from the earlier posts:
- What brought Corinne to collect and publish such an exposure book? What was the purpose of the book?
- Is their similarity in other photographers work to document their lives? And if so was she inspired by others?
Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin Self-portrait with eyes turned inward, Boston, 1989; Photo was taken from < http://www.boerner.net/jboerner/?p=3456 > [accessed 7 November 2010]
Before comparing between Corinne Day and Nan Goldin, here is some background of Nan Goldin, to get a wider view about her life and work.
screen shot was taken from < http://www.kettererkunst.com/bio/NanGoldin-1953.shtml > [accessed 7 November 2010]
Corinne and Nan shared much of the same experiences in life. In their background there is … in the life style and work style as well.
From their early lives they have walked through similar patterns. Corinne wasn’t raised by her parents, in different sources she criticised them and the way they have decided to live their lives, “my dad was a professional bank robber”( from ‘imperfect beauty’ ). Nan ran away from home and went to live in a commune with strangers that later become her closets friends. Corinne and Nan both did not finish school, Corinne left school at the age of 16 while Nan was expelled when she was 14. They are self-thought photographers. Their experience in photography started with help and encouragement of a friend.
The dominant figures in their lives, as it is shown in their work and other primary written resources of them, are their friends. Their friends play a role of family in their lives from young age. They documented their friend a large part of their careers. In Corinne’s case the most coherent work of friends documentation is ‘the diary’, in Nan’s work is the slide show exhibition, which later became a book “the ballad of sexual dependency”.
“The Ballad of Sexual Dependency”- is a multimedia installation with 700 slides and a programmed soundtrack. 
Nan and Corinne came from poverty life, drug use as a way of life of their surroundings and themselves and dealing with severe illness and death. In Nan’s life most of her closest friends were HIV positive and later on died from it. Most of her friends that she documented in her work “the ballad of sexual dependency” had died from the disease. On Corinne’s side it was her own illness she had to deal and live with.
In the article by Sheryl Garratt for the Observer (2002), she is suggesting that maybe by going through similar experiences in life you get to use the same forms of expression such as the diary. In my believe it is true, they are two photographers although from different niche (Corinne from fashion photography and Nan from art photography), going through close experiences in life. The experiences one is having shape his identity, and for artistic person like photographer it become an influence and other side of the his identity that can be expressed in his work.
The photography to them was a way of therapy, of living the life without missing out any of it. They lived life that wasn’t the mainstream, the tomorrow was not an obvious like it would seem to others, it is part of the risks when you are choosing to live on the edge. Photographing their day-to-day lives gave them a sense of what is happening now in their lives. For Corinne it started by her love to nostalgia and the regrets that long period of her life was unphotographed, just parts of it in her memory, while for Nan the photography started by dealing with memories loss, of her sister who died.
After knowing why they photographed these intimate moments of their lives, the questions still remains why publicise it?
Nan’s work ‘The Ballad of Sexual Dependency’ was her first appearance to the art world. She entered this new world with a new saying about art photography through her own world, which deals with sexual identity, violence and drug use; things that back then in 1986 the art scene did not cope with often. She wanted to bring up the awareness of the subjects most people decided to avoid talking about. Moreover at the beginning of the 80s Nan started political activism on behalf of the gay movement, she saw her work influencing and helping her sending the message.
As for Corinne, the ‘diary’ was released on 2000, it was long after the ‘grunge’ look in fashion was out. It wasn’t an attempt to bring something new to the fashion or art world, it seems like it was a closer to that period in her life. Her photographic style has changed from the 90s and the 2000, It was a remark, a romanticism of the era that have passed.
To answer the question if Corinne was inspired by other photographers such as Nan Goldin, I added the following quotation from Corinne’s essay from the book ‘Imperfect beauty’ (p.85 C. Cotton)
A few questions I have for further research after writing this post-
Q: What other inspirations Corinne has had?
Q: Was Corinne only a fashion photographer?
References:
