Nan Goldin (Born 1953 in Washington, DC) is well-known for her candid photographs of intimate moments between her friends and family. A member of “The Boston School,” composed of artists such as David Armstrong, Mark Morrisroe, and Jack Pierson, Goldin visited Tokyo in 1992 and was struck by the beauty of the city and people, and for the first time she “photographed strangers on the street. [She] sensed change in the air, things boiling up from underground, people coming out, and women emerging with new attitudes.” Goldin returned to Tokyo in 1994 to work alongside her Japanese counterpart, the photographer Nobuyoshi Araki. Together, they published an artists’ book of their photographs of Japanese youth, titled Tokyo Love. Goldin was struck by the similarities between her formative years in the United States and the rebellious Japanese youth she encountered in Tokyo.
Goldin captured a wide range of experiences in the Tokyo Love series, from innocent joy to revealing nude portraits. Noa dressing for the Venus show at Shogun depicts two teens in fantastical costumes preparing for a performance at a club in Tokyo. Their costumes, which include fake fangs, feather boas, and elaborate makeup, are reminiscent of the exuberant styles seen in Goldin’s early photographs of drag queens in Boston. Many of the artist’s close friends died of AIDS-related illness in the years prior to her collaboration with Araki in Tokyo. The photos in the series can be seen as a celebration of life and love, in the face of death and despair.
