The Ballad of Sexual Dependency is a visual diary chronicling the struggle for intimacy and understanding between friends, family, and lovers - collectively described by Goldin as her "tribe". Her work describes a world that is visceral, charged, and seething with life. First published in 1986, this reissue recognizes the persistent relevance and freshness of Nan Goldin's cutting-edge photography and its importance to an era ravaged by AIDS and drug addiction. Through an accurate and detailed record of her life, Ballad reveals Goldin's personal odyssey as well as a more universal understanding of the different languages men and women speak. In its ten years, the influence of Ballad on photography and other aesthetic realms has continually grown, making the work a contemporary classic. Nan Goldin's story of urban life on the fringe was the swan song of an era that reached its peak in the early eighties. Yet it has captured an important element of humanity which is transcendent: a need to connect.