''Ivy wearing a fall, Boston'' is a 1973

gelatin silver print The gelatin silver process is the most commonly used chemical process in black-and-white photography, and is the fundamental chemical process for modern analog color photography. As such, films and printing papers available for analog photography ...

photograph by the American photographer

Nan Goldin Nancy Goldin (born September 12, 1953) is an American photographer and activist. Her work often explores LGBT subcultures, moments of intimacy, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and the opioid epidemic. Her most notable work is '' The Ballad of Sexual Depend ...

. It is one of the many

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

photographs that Goldin took of her friends between 1972 and 1974. Depicting Goldin’s close friend Ivy with head turned back, the photograph measures 19.875 in x 15.875 in (50.5 cm x 40.3 cm). It was purchased by Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2002.

Background

Goldin started taking black-and-white photographs as a teenager in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

, before she moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

in 1978. Goldin had no prior formal education in photography, and she was heavily influenced by fashion photography,

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

’s early films,

Federico Fellini Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most ...

, French and Italian Vogue,

Larry Clark Lawrence Donald Clark (born January 19, 1943) is an American film director, photographer, writer and film producer who is best known for his controversial teen film ''Kids'' (1995) and his photography book ''Tulsa'' (1971). His work focuses prim ...

Guy Bourdin Guy Bourdin (2 December 1928 – 29 March 1991), was a French artist and fashion photographer known for his provocative images. From 1955, Bourdin worked mostly with '' Vogue'' as well as other publications including '' Harper's Bazaar''. He sho ...

and

Helmut Newton Helmut Newton (born Helmut Neustädter; 31 October 192023 January 2004) was a German-Australian photographer. The ''The New York Times, New York Times'' described him as a "prolific, widely imitated fashion photographer whose provocative, erotic ...

. Her celebratory black-and-white photographs of drag queens prefigure her later signature cibachrome work such as ''

The Ballad of Sexual Dependency ''The Ballad of Sexual Dependency'' is a 1985 slide show exhibition and 1986 artist's book publication of photographs taken between 1979 and 1986 by photographer Nan Goldin. It is an autobiographical document of a portion of New York City's No ...

''.

Details

When she was 19, Goldin lived in downtown Boston where she began documenting her life in the subcultural community she made home. It was during her time there that her interest in photography solidified. She frequented The Other Side, a drag bar, where she became acquainted with the

drag queen A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part o ...

s and

transsexual Transsexual people experience a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desire to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance (including sex reassignm ...

s who later became the principal subjects for her photographs. In this photograph, Ivy is in drag with a long-haired wig cascading behind her, epitomizing the sexual freedom and gender fluidity that Goldin admired. Goldin has said that she wanted to show respect and honor drag queens by portraying them as a “third gender, as another sexual option, a gender option.”

Notes

{{Reflist

Background

Details

Notes

See also