Larry Clark's searing and uncompromising black-and-white photographs first burst into public consciousness with Tulsa (1971), a vaguely threatening and semi-autobiographical study of aimless sex and violence and drug use in a Midwestern town. Since then, Clark has produced a large and diverse body of photography as well as some of the most important independent films of the last decade. But it is the elusiveness and the haunting quality of Tulsa, at once unforgettable and largely inexplicable, that suggest how Clark's hugely influential work exists, for the public, only in partial form. It is difficult to try to understand this notorious outsider since his photographs, films, books, and collages have never been gathered together in one place. Larry Clark will be the first comprehensive study of the artist, including an exhibition and catalogue with over 300 works, from his earliest commercial photographs to his most recent films. Among the issues that Clark grapples with in all his work are many that percolate just below the surface of the American consciousness: teenage violence, masculinity, adolescent sexuality, sexually explicit imagery, and censorship. Clark explores these topics from a highly subjective and surprisingly self-revelatory perspective. His important photo books, including Teenage Lust (1983), 1992 (1992), The Perfect Childhood (1995), and Punk Picasso (2003) explore the widespread cultural fixation with youth and identity. Larry Clark will also include unpublished outtakes and film stills from the Tulsa series; a group of photomontages that the artist produced in 1989-92; and material connected with Kids, Bully, Ken Park and other films, including preparatory studies, stills, and posters. With an extensive overview of Clark's photographic work by ICP chief curator Brian Wallis, an analysis of his films, and a conversation with Clark himself, this book demands that we look hard at these challenging pictures and address some of the key cultural controversies of our day.
