Nan Goldin

Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica

Nan Goldin, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (New York, 1986), pp. 29, 99, and 102

Dsordes (Paris: Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, 1992), p. 23

Nan Goldin and David Armstrong, Ein Doppeltes Leben (Zurich, 1994), pp. 22, 42-3, 107, and 116

Nan Goldin, The Golden Years (Paris: Galerie Yvon Lambert, 1995), unpaginated

Nan Goldin, I’ll Be Your Mirror (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1996), pp. 256-273

Sex & Crime: Von der Verhltnissen der Menschen (Hannover: Sperengel Museum, 1996), pp. 26-7

Nan Goldin and Taka Kawachi, eds., Nan Goldin: Couples and Loneliness (Tokyo, 1998), pp. 77-9

After a sequence of chance encounters in the late 1970s, photographer, filmmaker and activist Nan Goldin made the acquaintance of Cookie Mueller, an actress she initially recognized from John Waters films. As their friendship blossomed, Goldin took hundreds of images of Mueller over a 13 year period of time, ultimately compiling a tribute portfolio of 15 commemorating both the photographer’s friendship and subsequent loss on the occasion of Mueller’s death in 1989. Several of the photographs are part of The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, the autobiographical visual diary which brought Goldin international recognition. While both series chronicled Goldin’s life and friendships against the backdrop of an era informed by the AIDS epidemic of the 1970s and 80s, the emotional impact of the tightly edited Cookie Mueller portfolio is gut-wrenching. 

“I used to think I couldn’t lose anyone if I photographed them enough. I put together this series of pictures from the hundreds I took of Cookie during the 13 years I knew her in order to keep her with me. In fact it shows me how much I’ve lost.”

- Nan Goldin,

Only two sets of the Cookie Mueller portfolio are believed to have been offered at auction in the last two decades.  Exhibited widely in the 1990s, the portfolio is represented in several institutional collections, including the High Museum, Atlanta; Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich; Fotomuseum Winterthur; and Auvergne Regional Contemporary Art Fund, Clermont-Ferrand.

Goldin’s career and her efforts to hold the Sackler family accountable for their role in the opioid crisis are the subject of Laura Poitras’ moving 2022 documentary ‘All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,’ which was nominated for an Oscar in the Documentary Feature Film category.  

The plates in this portfolio are titled in the photographer's hand in ink on the reverse and include:

cookie + sharon dancing at the Back Room, Provincetown, 1976 

cookie w. max at my birthday party. Provincetown, 1977

cookie + millie in the girls' room at the Mudd Club. NYC, 1979 

cookie at Tin Pan Alley. NYC, 1983 

cookie laughing. NYC, 1985 

cookie + vittorio's wedding: the ring NYC, 1986

cookie w. me after I was hit at S.P.E. conference. Baltimore, Md., 1986 

cookie in the bathroom at Hawaii 5-0. NYC, 1986

cookie in the garden of Ciro's. Provincetown, Sept., 1989

cookie + sharon on the bed, Provincetown, 1989

cookie in her casket. NYC, 1989 [cookie at vittorio's casket, NYC'] 

cookie + max at home. NYC. Sept., 1989 

cookie being x-rayed. NYC, Oct., 1989 

cookie in her casket. NYC, 1989 

cookie + vittorio's living room. NYC, Christmas, 1989