Untitled Home Movie Still

Larry SultanWW-1984-131513

1984·Chromogenic print from digital file·Image/paper: 43 × 55.9 cm (16 15/16 × 22 1/16 in.)

<p>This photograph of the artist’s mother as she squints against the bright sun evokes amateur family vacation photos. The ambivalence of her expression points to the ambiguity of such snapshots—can they really capture the truth of a moment? The photograph is part of a larger series titled Pictures from Home, in which Larry Sultan explores differ-ent versions of family truth. In this project, Sultan focused on his parents in the post-corporate, retirement phase of their lives, capturing the allure and the letdown of the American dream.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1984
Medium: Chromogenic print from digital file
Dimensions: Image/paper: 43 × 55.9 cm (16 15/16 × 22 1/16 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Larry Sultan

Artist

Larry Sultan

Photography

Larry Sultan was an American photographer whose color work documented the texture of everyday domestic life and leisure in postwar California. Working primarily in large-format color photography from the 1970s onward, Sultan constructed carefully composed interiors and backyard scenes that transformed the mundane into psychologically charged tableaux. His practice emerged alongside a broader shift in American photography toward color as a fine art medium. Sultan's influence extended across generations of photographers exploring the domestic sphere and the construction of American identity through vernacular spaces.

New York, NY, USA

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