Larry Sultan, 2009 © Kelly Sultan
Larry Sultan dies at 63. The American photographer passed away today from cancer; see his obit in today’s New York Times. His photography has been a major influence on us all. My favorite body of work from Sultan is Pictures from Home (1992).
Practicing golf swing, 1986 © Larry Sultan from Pictures from Home
Argument at the Kitchen Table, 1986 © Larry Sultan from Pictures from Home
Mom Posing for Me, 1984 © Larry Sultan from Pictures from Home
For ten years Larry Sultan vigorously documented his mother and father. He then published his book Pictures from Home. As Charlotte Cotton describes “some of the photographs are posed, and Sultan describes these as images he traded or won their compliance to be photographed while they undertook household chores.”[1] The images border on collaboration, exercising the willingness of the subject to stop and have their photograph taken. Sultan’s images present themselves as a range of vernacular family snaps from spontaneous and in the moment to formally posed. Sultan beautifully crafts the commonplace within these images. Pictures from Home may have served as an aid to memory for Sultan, but mostly he strove to understand. Sultan studied two individuals he had always known, remembering them as a child and returning as an adult. He tried to grasp nuances, from then to now, investigating not only his parents but also himself. Since the maker is a son depicting his parents there is an intimate language permeating from the subjects themselves, and his endearing attitude toward his family is always prevalent.
[1] Charlotte Cotton, ‘Intimate Life’, in The Photograph as Contemporary Art, 2004, p. 161.
Untitled, 2009 © Jake Fromme
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