Nan Goldin brings an intimate, forbidden 1980s New York to London

“Thirty-five years have passed and we have reached the twenty-first edition of The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. I love this book; it is the reason I am here today. It amazes me that it still resonates in the world. Since then, I have lived many lives, but perhaps that period shaped me the most, the years of The Ballad. I still believe these photographs speak the truth of that time. For me, it is important to recontextualize the afterword every ten years. Just as I continually re-edit the slideshow of my photographs, I want to keep updating the record of my life,” Nan Goldin wrote three years ago. At the exhibition opening on January 13, 2026, at the Gagosian gallery on Davies Street in London, she will now present for the first time the complete series of 126 photographs from the iconic book.

Created between 1973 and 1986, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency offers a perceptive reflection on gender, intimacy, and power. While the market in the United States appeared to be flourishing, especially through an outward image of national identity coated in optimism, beneath that surface the country was grappling with fear, scandals, and the slow disintegration of old certainties. Nan Goldin looked to that side.

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Nan Goldin, French Chris on the convertible, New York City (1979) from “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency”

“I grew up in a time when the connective tissue of suburbia was denial. It sustained culture, mentality, and an outward facade. I did not accept the myths families tell themselves and present to the world. Very early on, I realized my experience could be erased with: I never said that. I never did that. That never happened. I had to leave.”

Nightclubs, unfamiliar bedrooms, and strangers’ couches. That was New York in a time that still resonates strongly in culture. The very title, inspired by a song from The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, suggests a kind of opera of the downtown scene. Its protagonists, including the artist herself, are recorded in intimate moments of love and loss. They experience ecstasy and pain through sex and drug use; they spend nights in clubs and then try to build relationships with their children at home; they confront domestic violence and the devastating consequences of AIDS. The photographs were made with the intention that nostalgia would never color her past.

Nan Goldin, Cookie at Tin Pan Alley, New York City (1983) from “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency”

For Nan, the book is a kind of personal diary that allows others to read it. “These images come from relationships, not from observation. They are an invitation into my world, but over time they have become a record of a lost generation. Presenting The Ballad in its entirety, forty years after I published the book, means reaffirming that the desire for transformation, as well as the difficulties of connection and togetherness, are still true in our world. It still impresses me that generation after generation finds its own stories in The Ballad, keeping it alive.”

Nan Goldin, Warren and Jerry fighting, London (1978) from “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency”

While pushing the boundaries of what is socially acceptable by bringing taboo subjects from the margins to the center of the contemporary art scene, Nan also sheds light on the harsh reality of the LGBTQ+ community of that time. Without any embellishment, the subjects, captured in the reality of everyday life and ordinary spaces, appear almost unaware of the camera’s presence. The Ballad was her manifesto and the first powerful gesture in a career that would, over the following decades, affirm a new potential for the photographic medium. Today, in its twenty-third edition, it remains one of the most influential photobooks ever published.

Nan Goldin, Empty beds, Boston (1979) from “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency”