Her work explores in snapshot-style the emotions of the individual, in intimate relationships, and the bohemian LGBT subcultural communities, especially dealing with the devastating HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s.

[9] After Polaroid donated some cameras to the school, a staff member (existential psychologist Rollo May's daughter) introduced Goldin to photography in 1969 when she was sixteen years old.

[12] At first she tried to emulate early as well as contemporary fashion photography by the likes of Guy Bourdin and Helmut Newton in French and Italian Vogue magazine issues she stole and then she and her peers would be occupied with for hours.

[13] Goldin's first solo show, held in Boston in 1973, was based on her photographic journeys among the city's gay and transgender communities, to which she had been introduced by her friend David Armstrong.

[15] However, upon attending the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, when her professors told her to go back and photograph queens again, Goldin admitted her work was not the same as when she had lived with them.

Her first slideshow in New York was at the birthday party of Frank Zappa at the Mudd Club, with her boyfriend acting as deejay, while on another occasion a live band (the Del Byzanteens featuring Jim Jarmusch) accompanied the screening.

After the slideshow was screened at the Whitney Biennial in 1985, it was published as a book a year later by Aperture with help from Marvin Heiferman, Mark Holborn, and her friend Suzanne Fletcher.

[19] Taken from a song in Bertolt Brecht's Threepenny Opera,[20] which served as opener for the slideshow,[11] the title printed on flyers and posters for the events was originally an undefined plural, Ballads of Sexual Dependency, referring to the slideshow's deejayed soundtrack with songs by The Velvet Underground, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Yoko Ono ("She Fights Back"), Petula Clark ("Downtown"), Dionne Warwick ("Don't Make Me Over"), Dean Martin ("Memories"), Nina Simone, chansons by Boris Vian ("Fais-moi mal, Johnny"), Charles Aznavour and Edith Piaf, arias sung by Maria Callas a.

"[9] They depict autobiographical moments, mostly of friends, women and men for themselves and couples, often nude, some causual, some explicit, but also a small spread with kids and groups of people partying; they show love, joy and confidence, but also vulnerability, tears and the result of violence, especially an incident at the end of her intense relationship with Brian, who is subject of many images as well as on the book cover.

She has affectionately documented women looking in mirrors, girls in bathrooms and barrooms, drag queens, sexual acts, and the culture of obsession and dependency.

[27] Goldin's work since 1995 has included a wide array of subject matter: a collaborative book project with Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki; New York City skylines and uncanny landscapes; people (notably in water) and her lover, Siobhan; and babies, parenthood and family life.

[28] After some time, her photos moved from portrayals of dangerous youthful abandonment to scenes of parenthood and family life in progressively worldwide settings.

This consisted of jackets, sweatshirts and t-shirts in various colors, with designs titled "Misty and Jimmy Paulette", "Kim in Rhinestone" and "Nan as a dominatrix".

"[35] Goldin admits to having a romanticized image of drug culture at a young age, but she soon saw the error in this ideal: "I had a totally romantic notion of being a junkie.

[22] Goldin's The Ballad of Sexual Dependency critiques gender norms ("clichés" as she calls them) by highlighting the collective human desire to form connections regardless of the emotional or physical cost.

Her friends are a diverse cast consisting of many non-conforming gender identities and sexualities; Goldin's photography exposes many narratives that most would turn a blind eye to, such as the intense intimacy and pain of same-sex relationships.

[38] Her friends and colleagues Peter Hujar, Larry Clark, and David Wojnarowicz, as well as historical figures like August Sander and Claude Cahun were all major influences to Goldin's work.

"[37] The youths in Larry Clark's Tulsa (1971) presented a striking contrast to any wholesome, down-home stereotype of the heartland that captured the collective American imagination.

[40][42] Goldin has said the campaign attempts to contrast the philanthropic contributions of the Sackler family to art galleries, museums and universities with a lack of responsibility taken for the opioid crisis.

[41] Goldin identified that Tate, which has received Sackler money, paid her for one of the ten copies of The Ballad of Sexual Dependency in 2015, when she was deeply addicted to OxyContin.

[51] In October 2023, soon after the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, Goldin signed a letter on Artforum that was criticized by pro-Israel activists for being antisemitic, as it did not mention the Palestinian organization Hamas or the Israelis who were killed.

The curator of the Rio de Janeiro Museum of Modern Art changed the schedule to accommodate, in February 2012, the Goldin exhibition in Brazil.

Artists represented included David Armstrong, Tom Chesley, Dorit Cypis, Philip-Lorca DiCorcia, Jane Dickson, Darrel Ellis, Allen Frame, Peter Hujar, Greer Lankton, Siobhan Liddel, Mark Morrisroe, Jamie Nares, Perico Pastor, Margo Pelletier, Clarence Elie-Rivera, Vittorio Scarpati, Jo Shane, Kiki Smith, Janet Stein, Stephen Tashjian, Shellburne Thurber, Ken Tisa, and David Wojnarowicz.

Goldin noted that artists' works varied in response, as "out of loss comes memory pieces, tributes to friends and lovers who have died; out of anger comes explorations of the political cause and effects of the disease.

Additionally, Wojnarowicz speaks about the efficacy of making the private public via the model of outing, as he and Goldin believed empowerment begins through self-disclosure.

[103][104] Goldin's second curated show, From Desire: A Queer Diary (March 29 – April 19, 1991), was held at the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery at St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY.

[109] In the production of Mary Harron's infamous I Shot Andy Warhol (1996) with Lili Taylor as Valerie Solanas, Goldin is listed for "special photography".

The photographs by the character Lucy Berliner, played by actress Ally Sheedy in Lisa Cholodenko's 1998 film High Art, were based on those by Goldin.

On the occasion of her first major retrospective in the UK an early documentary was made beforehand in 1995 for the BBC by Edmund Coulthard, called like the show, I'll Be Your Mirror.

[111] Paul Tschinkel did a 30 minute feature on occasion of the retrospective being shown at the Whitney Museum in New York, titled Nan Goldin: In My Life.