ICONS by Nan Goldin for Jimmy Choo (via fashionistabarbieuk.com)

The photographer who documented real 1980s New York grit, Nan Goldin, now points her lens towards … peacocks, horses and shoes? In a new ad campaign for luxury shoe line Jimmy Choo, Goldin lends her signature to some awfully confusing images.

We really don’t like to throw judgments around, criticizing artists for selling out — no, really — but we can’t reconcile with this campaign. It literally could’ve been shot by anyone; the photos bear almost no relation to Goldin’s aesthetic. Drug addicts and drag queens may not sell shoes, but there at least could’ve been a little bit of an edge to the shoot. As of now, it looks like an ad for Britney Spears’s Fantasy.

Is Goldin branching out creatively, or did she just want the money to afford the Choo’s?

Alexander Cavaluzzo is a Pop Poet, Cultural Critic and Sartorial Scholar. He received his BS in Art History from FIT and his MA in Arts Politics at NYU. His interests focus on the intersection of fashion,...

3 replies on “Nan Goldin Sells Her Soul for Jimmy Choo”

  1. I would have had no idea these were by Nan Goldin. If you’d taken that same model and put her on a rumpled bed on a fifth-floor LES walkup, maybe with the peacock still around for weirdness, I’d have had a clue (though I’d more likely have thought “Nan Goldin ripoff”). On the other hand, maybe the fact that this ad campaign is dissimilar from most of Goldin’s art is a point in her favor — it’s perhaps a mercenary job for the $ (no judgment there), but I don’t think it dilutes her art photos’ authenticity since it’s so unlike them.

  2. I’d like to think she doesn’t quite need the money at this point, but who really knows?  She may not actually sell all that well or might have run through tons of cash for drugs and booze.  I hope she just likes their shoes a whole lot or something.

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