Some of Nan's earliest work was based around her photographic journeys among the Boston's gay and transsexual communities. After she graduated in the late 70's she moved to New York City where she began documenting the post-punk new-wave music scene, along with the city's vibrant gay subculture of the late 1970s and early 1980s. She was drawn especially to the Bowery's hard-drug subculture; these photographs, taken between 1979 and 1986 which form her famous work The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. These snapshot aesthetic images depict drug use, violent, aggressive couples and autobiographical moments.
What inspires me the most about her work is that she uses her camera as a form of remembering certain things that have happened in her life and how she documents her experiences. Her photographs are normally shot with natural light as well which is something I would like to start doing.
