Larry Sultan Found Sex and Drama in the Cul-de-Sac
Larry Sultan‘s lush photographs—of his parents, of porn stars, of Californian suburbia—always felt like the best fashion pictures, without the clothes. They had fantasy, cinema, desire, sex. And the subjects possessed an inner life, because Sultan gave them one. “Larry Sultan: Here and Home,” a major retrospective of the late photographer’s very influential career at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art opening Saturday (sponsored by Bottega Veneta, the show runs through July 23), is a testament to his constant insights into and puncturing of the artifice of photography. Sultan, who before his death in 2009 shot for W, staged narratives of his own invention and imbued even the most personal documentation of his native Southern California with fictions. Even his own parents were not immune. As Sultan’s father once said to him, of a portrait of himself, “Any time you show that picture, you tell people that that’s not me sitting on the bed looking all dressed up and nowhere to go, depressed. That’s you sitting on the bed, and I am happy to help you with the project, but let’s get things straight here.’”
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Larry Sultan, My Mother Posing for Me, from the series Pictures From Home, 1984.
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Larry Sultan, Practicing Golf Swing, from the series Pictures from Home, 1986
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Larry Sultan, Dad with Golf Clubs, from the series Pictures From Home, 1987
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Larry Sultan, Discussion, Kitchen Table, from the series Pictures From Home, 1985
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Larry Sultan, Business Page, from the series Pictures From Home, 1985
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Larry Sultan, Backyard Hercules, from the series Homeland, 2009
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Larry Sultan, Canal District, San Rafael, from the series Homeland, 2006
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Larry Sultan, Batting Cage, from the series Homeland, 2007
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Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel, Untitled, from the series Evidence, 1977
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Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel, Untitled, from the series Evidence, 1977
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Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel, Oranges on Fire, 1975
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Larry Sultan, Sunset, from the series, Pictures from Home, 1989
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Larry Sultan, Sharon Wild, from the series The Valley, 2001
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Larry Sultan, Boxers, Mission Hills, from the series The Valley, 1999
