If you want to understand American photographer Nan Goldin, you need to be comfortable with embracing both darkness and light. You have to be ready to descend into the underworld and to rise like a phoenix from ashes. There is the pain of abuse in her work, like her self-portrait titled: Nan one month after being battered,1984, which shows her bruised and battered aftermath of a toxic relationship. And there is also the carefree “let them eat cake” joy in her snapshot Picnic on the Esplanade, Boston, 1973.