The images from Nan Goldin’s indelible book, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, are being presented in their entirety for the first time in the UK. The exhibition at Gagosian, London, marks 40 years since the publication of Goldin’s seminal photo series and features all 126 photographs from the original monograph. Shot between 1973 and 1986, Ballad not only immortalised the milieu of downtown New York, but, in its afterlife, has influenced generations of artists, writers and thinkers, as well as emboldening and moving all who choose to spend any time with it. 

Originally conceived as a slideshow initially presented in nightclubs and bars as well as galleries (currently on show in this format as part of This Will Not End Well at Milan’s Pirelli HangarBicocca), her approach to portraiture disturbed the conventions of what was formally considered art photography. In the spontaneity, unflinching honesty and intimacy of its images, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency was, as Goldin herself puts it, “the diary I let people read“.

“I don’t select people in order to photograph them; I photograph directly from my life. These pictures come out of relationships, not observation,” Goldin says, in an exhibition text. “They are an invitation to my world, but now they have become a record of the generation that was lost. To show The Ballad in its entirety 40 years after I published the book, is to reaffirm that desire for transformation and the difficulty of connection and coupling are still true to our world. I’m still impressed that generation after generation finds their own stories in The Ballad, keeping it alive.”

Nan Goldin’s The Ballad of Sexual Dependency is running at Gagosian Davies Street, London, until 21 March 2026