The Other Side by Nan Goldin

‘This is a book about beauty and about my love for my friends.’

‘In the 1980s two of my closest friends were transsexual. Bother were completely absorbed into their gender choices as women and each married her boyfriend. One was a top model in Paris in the mid-‘80s and won Girl of the Year. They had my deepest admiration for going to the point of surgical recreation. One of these friends once described to me from her own experience the difference between a male and a female orgasm. That seems to me an enviable wealth of experience to have in one lifetime - to have been in the world in two different skins. But that same friend who changed sex from male to female in her early twenties told me she sometimes regretted the surgery because she felt it was, in part, a way to fit into normal society’s version is gender, and it takes more courage to remain a queen.’

‘After years of experiencing and photographing the struggle of the two genders with their codes and definitions and their difficulties in relating to each other, it was liberating to meet people who had crossed these gender boundaries. Most people get scared when they can’t categorise others - by race, by age, and, most of all, by gender. It takes nerve to walk down the street when you fall between the cracks. Some of my friends shift genders daily - from boy to girl and back again. Some are transsexual before or after surgery, and among them some live entirely as women while others openly identify themselves as transsexuals. Others dress up only for stage performances and live as gay boys by day. And still others make no attempt to fit in anywhere, but live in a gender-free zone, flaunting their third sex status.’

‘The pictures in this book are not of people suffering gender dysphoria but rather expressing gender euphoria. This book is about new possibilities and transcendence. The people in these pictures are truly revolutionary; they are the real winners of the battle of the sexes because they have stepped out of the ring.’

Hardback, first edition. Pages slightly wavy from damp (so selling at a lower price) but in otherwise good condition. 1993