Nan Goldin (Washington, U.S., 1953) is widely acknowledged and celebrated for her highly personal portraits. Amongst her admirers is also David La Chapelle, who once in an interview with GUP magazine said, he finds Goldin’s work so touching it makes him cry. Scopophilia, by Freud defined as ‘the love of looking’, is Goldin’s first series in six years. For this project she was granted special after-hours acces to the Louvre where she photographed sculptures and paintings by the Renaissance masters. By pairing those photographs with never-before-seen images of her loved ones she creates new life, new love and desire. 

Goldin explains, “Desire awoken by images is the project’s true starting point. It is about the idea of taking a picture of a sculpture or a painting in an attempt to bring it to life.”

Scopophilia will be on view at Matthew Marks gallery in New York through December 23. 

www.matthewmarks.com