I used to think that I could never lose anyone if I photographed them enough. In fact, my pictures show me how much I’ve lost.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the emotional distance created by loss, despite the effort to capture memories through photography.
Nan Goldin's quote reveals a deep introspection about the nature of loss and memory. Although she believed that capturing someone's image through photography could preserve their essence and prevent loss, the act of viewing these photographs ultimately serves as a poignant reminder of what she has lost. This paradox highlights how memories and visual representations can evoke both comfort and sorrow, illustrating the complex interplay between love, memory, and grief in human relationships.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of capturing memories, this quote illustrates the bittersweet nature of remembrance.
A lot of people seem to think that art or photography is about the way things look, or the surface of things. That's not what it's about for me. It's really about relationships and feelings...it's really hard for me to do commercial work because people kind of want me to do a Nan Goldin. They don't understand that it's not about a style or a look or a setup. It's about emotional obsession and empathy.
After the discovery in 1918 of love letters revealing that Franklin was involved with Lucy Mercer: The bottom dropped out of my own particular world, I faced myself, my surroundings, my world, honestly for the first time.
I kind of cheer the presence of any gay characters at all - I think the more we can saturate television with any gay character or lesbian character or transgender character, I think that's a really great thing. We're kind of getting past the fact that they're the punchline or that they're the novelty.
Many employer-employee relationships are built on a lie that starts from the first interaction: neither party automatically conceives of the relationship as something that will last a lifetime, but both interact as if it is. This lie of omission bases the relationship on distrust.
Not everyone has been a bully or the victim of bullies, but everyone has seen bullying, and seeing it, has responded to it by joining in or objecting, by laughing or keeping silent, by feeling disgusted or feeling interested.
Chimpanzees have very strong preferences and aversions that are completely personality-linked. The people who are unsuccessful in working with chimpanzees are those who take this personally.
Are the angels of her bed the angels who come near me alone in mine? Are the green trees in her window the color is see in ripe plums? If she always sees backward and upside down without knowing it what chance do we have? I am haunted by the feeling that she is saying melting lords of death, avalanches, rivers and moments of passing through, And I am replying, "Yes, yes. Shoes and pudding.
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