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A pioneer of diaristic photography, Nan Goldin is an influential American artist and activist known for her intimate and compelling portrayal of the lives and experiences of marginalized communities, especially her own immediate circle of friends. Born on September 12, 1953, in Washington, D.C., Goldin grew up in a middle-class Jewish family. Her early years were marked by a tumultuous relationship with her parents and her sister’s death by suicide when Goldin was 11 years old.

Goldin's interest in photography began during her teenage years, when she received her first camera as a gift. She attended the Satya Community School in Massachusetts and later studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It was during this time that she started capturing her friends and acquaintances in their everyday lives, exploring themes of love, identity, queerness, sexuality, and addiction. Goldin moved to New York City in the 1970s, where she immersed herself in the city's vibrant art scene, becoming part of a transgressive community of artists, musicians, drag queens, and other individuals who would later form the subject of her most famous work, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. Comprised of hundreds of photographs accompanied by music, the groundbreaking slideshow presented an unflinching and honest portrayal of love, lust, addiction, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Beyond her work as an artist, Goldin has been a passionate advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and the fight against HIV/AIDS. In 2017, she founded the influential organization Prescription Addiction Intervention Now, or P.A.I.N., with the goal of holding the Sackler family responsible for their role in the opioid crisis. She is the subject of Laura Poitras’s 2022 documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed. Goldin's work has left an indelible mark on the world of photography, and her ability to capture the beauty and pain of human existence in a deeply personal and unapologetic way continues to resonate with audiences worldwide.