Couple in Bed, Chicago | Nan Goldin 1977

Like Diane Arbus and Larry Clark, to whom she is often compared, Nan Goldin expands and embellishes on the informal, content-driven aesthetic of the snapshot. Her style is one of sensuous immediacy, fueled by a potent fusion of opulent, saturated colors and artificial light. Her preferred settings are the interior spaces in which private dramas get played out: cluttered kitchens and bathrooms, downtown bars and rumpled beds. And her eye is acutely attuned to the intricate negotiations between people and their surroundings: women scrutinize their images in bathroom mirrors, men gaze pensively out of car windows, couples colonize the intimate geography of the bedroom. Among Goldin's greatest strengths is her use of color as a catalyst for amplifying the emotional tenor of the moment.