A 1997 segment from the television series ART/New York highlights Nan Goldin’s retrospective “I’ll Be Your Mirror,” held at The Whitney Museum of American Art in 1996. Goldin describes her first experiences with photography, and her motivation for taking pictures. “My photographs come out of emotional need rather than aesthetic choice and I needed to make a record because I came from a family and a culture that was based on “don’t let the neighbors know.” That was the gospel. And I wanted to let the neighbors know what was going on in my house, and I wanted to find out what was going on in their house…I think I knew in order to survive I had to make a record that couldn’t be revised,” she says.
The full program can be viewed here.