Corinne Day: Diary

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Along with a subtle change of photographic style, her tribe or family as one might want to call it, also transformed. A lot of the people she photographed in the 70’s and eighties died of AIDS - the virus was discovered only a few years after she got off Heroin in 1973. Nearly every drag queen Nan Goldin ever lived with died and many faces of The Ballad also vanished. Ironically her newest slideshow is called Heartbeat and it features a more positive take on life. Babies and children presented in this piece are symbols of renewal, whereas she rules out that there is any deeper meaning to it. In either case, Nan Goldin has gone full cycle by sharing stories of life, death, love, hate, illness and happiness – and she leaves it up to us to see and reason.

Moss has been so omnipresent over the years that looking at old pictures of her is inevitably a nostalgic experience. A series of 2007 close-ups allows us to compare then and now, although she seems to have escaped with only a few wrinkles in these passport-photo-like shots. (A Juergen Teller shoot in Self Service magazine last year was far more brutal.) The real novelty is seeing close-ups of her talking, since she utters so few words in public. Obviously my major source is the work Corinne Day is best known for. However, Diary can only be looked at as a visual source that leaves a lot of space for interpretation. The only coherent sentence written in the whole book is following one:Her best friend Tara is a central figure in Diary. Events in Tara’s life - partying, sexual liaisons, illness and finally, motherhood - unfold in front of her friends camera. Tara has an ambiguous beauty - sometimes fresh and pretty, sometimes sad or wasted, always natural and uninhibited - the perfect subject for Day’s own understated photographic aesthetic. Corinne Day’s pictures are often as unembellished and authentic as snapshots. Always, they have a fragile, unstyled, poetic beauty that she has made all her own. Corinne Day, who died 27 August 2010 , will be remembered for transforming fashion with her pictures of the young Kate Moss for the Face.

Corinne retreated from fashion work in the wake of the heroin chic debate, instead choosing to tour America with the band Pusherman and concentrate on her documentary photography. She also undertook work photographing musicians, including the image of Moby, used on his 1999 album Play. The photographic Diary of Corinne Day: An extensive study on her visual practice with reference to Laura Marks and Nan Goldin. Maria Vorobiev or Marevna, the name given to her in 1910 by Maxim Gorky and by which she was universally known was the first female cubist artist. During the early 1990s Day continued to work with The Face, as well as a number of magazines associated with youth and counter culture, including, i-D, Ray-Gun and Penthouse, working with models including Moss, Rosemary Ferguson and George Clements. In 1993, Day was commissioned by Alexandra Shulman to photograph Moss for the June issue of the British edition of Vogue. Intended as a lingerie fashion spread, the editorial, "Under Exposed" depicted the 19-year-old Moss in her west London flat, which she shared with her then boyfriend, fashion photographer Mario Sorrenti. [5] The images caused a media scandal, with The Independent claiming that the images were hideous, exploitative, verging on child pornography. [6] Documentary work [ edit ] By reading Nan Goldin’s and Corinne Day’s biographies one realises very soon that their lives have been similarly accompanied by poverty, drugs and friendships that are comparable to family - probably because of these circumstances. The main difference is that Goldin’s photographs are of sexual identity whereas Day’s work is more likely about the identity of a whole class. Nevertheless, both Goldin and Day lived their lives in this class that is marginalized and usually behind closed doors.Working with stylist Melanie Ward, Day and a handful of other photographers such as David Sims began using second-hand clothes and ungroomed, unconventional-looking models discovered in the street. The look they pioneered began to take off, christened 'waif' at first, then merging seamlessly with the US grunge scene. At the Paris shows, Ward and Day would laugh to see the second-hand clothes they'd shot six months before being imitated on the catwalk.

Corinne Day Diary was the culmination of ten years work and is an intensely personal and frank photographic account of her life and friendships during the last decade of the century in London. The series draws comparison with artists such as Nan Goldin and Larry Clark, who also live what they photograph. Like them, Day is curious about people who pursue experiences beyond the norm. She is extremely, at times even unbearably, close to her friends she photographs and yet she is so trusted that her presence is never regarded as intrusive, even at the most intimate moments. At times, Diary is bleak and despairing, as it chronicles these young lives with uncompromising honesty. At others, it is joyful in its simple celebration of friendship. Any sense of voyeurism is tempered by the fact that Day clearly shares in the lives of her subjects. Whether visible or not, she is always herself, emotionally present in her photographs. Refusing to conform, Day persisted with her unpolished, authentic style by producing work for alternative magazines such as Raygun, Donna and Interview. Day found herself in favour of indie bands; shooting Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Cranberries and Moby’s iconic Play album, 1998. Corinne Day sadly passed away in August 2010. It is now thought that her disciplined following of alternative treatments and good nutrition after her surgery, with the aid of her husband Mark Szaszy, helped to extend her life.With sixteen years of age, Day was only two years older than Goldin when she left school. Their family history is similarly convoluted whereas Day moved to her Grandmother - who is also included in Diary - when she was five. This might have to do with the fact that her father was, as she herself says, a “professional bank robber” (Cotton, p. 60). The questionable relationship with her parents is also depicted in her book with a picture of family members darkened down to an extent that the viewer can only identify Tara.