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Selected Works of Matthew Ryan Smith, Ph.D.
Presentation
Therapy and the Photographic Camera in Confessional Art: The Case of Nan Goldin’s Self-Portraiture
The Aesthetics of Excess, Department of Modern Languages, University of Western Ontario (2009)
  • Matthew Ryan Smith, University of Western Ontario
Abstract

The landscape of contemporary research on confessional and autobiographical visual art is relatively barren. Few have attempted to delineate the media-specific compulsion to confess. Nan Goldin cannot be overlooked as a confessant who forged a career by materializing catharsis. Goldin’s series of self-portraiture dating from 1983 to 1988 employs the photographic camera not only as a tool of confession but as a catalyst for psychotherapy.

Keywords
  • Nan Goldin,
  • photography,
  • abuse,
  • violence,
  • Ballad of Sexual Dependancy,
  • psychoanalysis,
  • autopathography,
  • autobiography,
  • confession,
  • Michel Foucault,
  • Freud,
  • New York City,
  • USA,
  • visual art
Disciplines
Publication Date
2009
Citation Information
Matthew Ryan Smith. "Therapy and the Photographic Camera in Confessional Art: The Case of Nan Goldin’s Self-Portraiture" The Aesthetics of Excess, Department of Modern Languages, University of Western Ontario (2009)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/matthewryansmith/7/