Larry Sultan

When I did research on Stephen Shore I found out about Larry Sultan. He photographed his father and family over a ten year period spanning the 70s and 80s as part of an elaborate project that included his parents own photos, home movies and statements. This was the Reagan era which preached the values of family life, a version Sultan didn't recognize.

He said: “Photography is there to construct the idea of us as a great family and we go on vacations and take these pictures and then we look at them later and we say, ‘Isn’t this a great family?’ So photography is instrumental in creating family not only as a memento, a souvenir, but also a kind of mythology.”

His photos possess a certain quality of hard-edged California light, heightened color, and optical precision. His photos also contain some kind of domestic familiarity that influenced some recent films like A Serious Man, The Savages and Punch Drunk Love.

Sources:

-http://www.artfacts.net/en/artist/larry-sultan-18189/profile.html

-http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-12-17/larry-sultans-california-dreams/