Nan Goldin, a true rock star of photography, was the guest of the Lumière Festival in Lyon for an exhibition of 35 photos.
Photos taken during the shooting of the film Variety directed by filmmaker Bette Gordon, in the underworld of New York at the turn of the 70s and 80s.
Sex, drugs and rock’n roll, Nan Goldin immortalized a period as troubled as it was exciting …
We met her for a moment of intense and sparkling conversation where she reveals some of these clichés below, the depth she gives them, as well as the memory of a New York now far away …
The bar clientele did not reject her, on the contrary, life was more intense and colorful. She describes the bar “as a combination of sex workers and bad cocaine dealers, and artists. There has never been a place like this in the whole world, good food, Japanese tourists, members from The Clash and locals, most of them were locals. “
She adds that she owed “a debt to Bette Gordon too, to the filmmaker who has been a friend since the 1970s. I have a lot of respect for her, and that’s one of the main reasons I agreed to do this exhibition “.
Nan Goldin therefore came to Lyon with Bette Gordon, a pioneer of independent American cinema.
The two artists presented the restored copy of Variety, a cinematic rarity that emerges from the past with astonishing beauty.
The film in which Nan Goldin plays her own role tells the story of a young woman who will take a job as a cashier at Variety, a Times Square porn cinema and who will gradually be fascinated by the place and its audience.
The films are screened several times during the Lumière Festival and will be released on French screens on November 24.
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