Children and Partners (Family) Web

Dad on Bed, 1985 Larry Sultan© Larry Sultan.


"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." (Larry Sultan)

Larry Sultan often takes photographs from home. he shoots his mother and father the most in their comfortable middle class home, capturing their 'perfect' family life. but is it really the 'perfect' family life? this image indicates otherwise; we can see the relationship between Sultan and his family straight away. We get the feeling and understanding between the family. This image creates a narrative - what this image says to me, is possibly the dad got sick of waiting for the image to be taken and just gone back to watching TV. His mother, however, is more patient. As Sultan's dad was a retired lawyer and in those days photography was deemed as not a real job, it is almost like his father didn't take Sultan's job too seriously. 

I personally love these images, the colours really make them. it provokes questions and whether they are fully staged or not, it leads us to create our own narratives about the image. 

References:


BBC - Photography - Genius of Photography - Gallery - Larry Sultan. 2012. BBC - Photography - Genius of Photography - Gallery - Larry Sultan. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/photography/genius/gallery/sultan.shtml. [Accessed 24 April 2012].

Larry Sultan: The king of colour photography - Features - Art - The Independent . 2012. Larry Sultan: The king of colour photography - Features - Art - The Independent . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/larry-sultan-the-king-of-colour-photography-2043204.html. [Accessed 24 April 2012].