Larry Sultan
Larry Sultan is a photographer, who, like me, takes photos of those often around him; his family. While he uses his direct family, I use biological and non biological family. The series in which he does this is titled 'Pictures from Home'
On his website it's said that 'His work blends documentary and staged photography to create images of the psychological as well as physical landscape of suburban family life.'
Within 'Pictures from Home', Sultan explores how he can use photography to create myths within the family life. He poses his mother and father to create an image on how he saw his family, sharing this with his audience.
The way he poses these images show a more unnatural situation of home life; it's not often that we see our dads on a green carpet swinging a golf club. This image however has sense of smooth movement that makes the image feel more natural. We can see the man's age and class through the visuals in the image; his skin and white hair then suggest the age of the photographer. The long white drapes feel very middle class. The old television makes the image feel either old, taken a while back, or suggests that his father wasn't very technically savvy; something that shows his age.
The theme of family is continuous throughout Sultan's images, but it is largely from his own view, how he sees his family rather than how they see themselves. In an interview discussing his work, his father claimed that Sultan wasn't in fact taking photographs of him, but rather of the photographer himself. Sultan says that it is in fact how he saw he parents growing up, it's what his father looks like to him.
By taking pictures of those he knows, he's able to be comfortable with them. These pre-existing relationships will help Sultan take these more intimate photographs of family life, giving a clearer and better insight to how he sees his family, influenced by his childhood.
Like Sultan, I also am taking images of family. I feel that actually, this is one of the biggest themes within my work and I have realised through looking at Sultan's work that the reason I am photographing family, biological and not biological, that the reason I have taken images of those I know is because of ease and because I am more comfortable with them.
On his website it's said that 'His work blends documentary and staged photography to create images of the psychological as well as physical landscape of suburban family life.'
Within 'Pictures from Home', Sultan explores how he can use photography to create myths within the family life. He poses his mother and father to create an image on how he saw his family, sharing this with his audience.
The theme of family is continuous throughout Sultan's images, but it is largely from his own view, how he sees his family rather than how they see themselves. In an interview discussing his work, his father claimed that Sultan wasn't in fact taking photographs of him, but rather of the photographer himself. Sultan says that it is in fact how he saw he parents growing up, it's what his father looks like to him.
By taking pictures of those he knows, he's able to be comfortable with them. These pre-existing relationships will help Sultan take these more intimate photographs of family life, giving a clearer and better insight to how he sees his family, influenced by his childhood.
Like Sultan, I also am taking images of family. I feel that actually, this is one of the biggest themes within my work and I have realised through looking at Sultan's work that the reason I am photographing family, biological and not biological, that the reason I have taken images of those I know is because of ease and because I am more comfortable with them.
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