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This series of photographs documents Goldin's relationship with friend Cookie Mueller, who died of AIDS in 1989. Goldin describes her first impression of Cookie as a "cross between a Tobacco Road Outlaw and a Hollywood B-Girl, the most famous women I'd ever seen." Besides being an artist, actress, mom, and wife, Cookie was a friend of Goldin's for over 13 years, over which time Goldin took many pictures of Cookie. Through these photographs, the women became close friends. The Cookie Portfolio encompasses many phases of Cookie's life. One photograph, Cookie with Max at my birthday party, shows an average mother at a party with her small son. Others, such as Cookie in Hawaii 5-0 bathroom or Cookie at Tin Pan Alley, are portraits of a strung-out, unhappy looking woman.
Cookie's husband, Vittorio, died of AIDS in 1989, just months before Cookie passed away. In this series, snapshots of the couple's wedding are juxtaposed with images of their respective funerals, events that were separated by only a few years. These are candid photographs, and could have been taken only by someone with whom Cookie had a great deal of intimacy. This closeness is clearly evident in the work by the degree to which Cookie allows herself to be exposed to Goldin's camera, and vice versa. This series of photographs gives Goldin a document of her friendship, and thus one relationship that she will never be able to truly lose.
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