BEhind the Curtains: The Ballad of sexual independency

An Homage to Nan Goldin

I have always admired the intimacy of the images created by Nan Goldin, how she got so close to her subjects and how the documentation of her daily life became a representation of ideals and believes of a particular era.

Of all her work, I have particularly envied her ability to capture explicitly sexual scenes and while looking at her work, I have often wondered how she must have felt being there and what it meant for her to immortalise those moments.

I wanted to investigate similar scenes, being close to sexually charged environments, where people seem to be walking along a line between fantasy and reality.

Places where some will happily step in to the fetish wilderness; others will stay in the shadows peeping out at the figures moving erotically in the darkness, intrigued but not courageous enough to join them in, probably like me.

My aspiration was to be able to distinguish the different smells, take in the full frontal nudity and the BDSM playrooms, to the point to be uncomfortable.

I have chosen places where erotic fantasies and limits are free to be explored without society judgements and I have discovered a generally relaxed atmosphere.

There is extreme focus on what people desire and the rules of the outside world do not exist there. There is also a true connection between people, and it is pure, uncontaminated by words or prejudice.

My voyeuristic eye had been the subject of an unshakable thrilling magnetic feeling.

I couldn’t avoid to, even if only for a brief moment, being part of that world too and I wonder if Nan Goldin ever felt the same.