Research Paper On Larry Clark

1258 Words3 Pages

Larry Clark, an American photographer and filmmaker was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on January 19, 1943. Being the son of a photographer, Clark was exposed to photography early in life. In 1959 he received his first camera at 15 and started taking pictures for his mother’s baby photography business and began experimenting with drugs with his friends. Between 1963 and 1971, Clark recorded him and his friends’ experimentation with drugs and published Tulsa, shattering the long-held belief that drugs were only used by those in urban communities. But it also received a lot of backlash for its illicit sexual nature. For this Catalog, Clark received a grant from the National Endowment for his next project thus putting on the map as a professional photographer. …show more content…

In the opening of the catalog, Clark recounts a time in his youth in a letter titled “A Little Rape”, in this letter he recounts how him and his friends in the eighth grade and slept with this one girl and taunted her about it. The acts he writes are disturbing to read yet still come off in almost a nonchalant tone. This letter isn’t necessarily included to add shock value, but possibly to add another glimpse into Clark’s life that we don’t get to see in the photographs. Maybe it was added to show how normal this was to him to show that no matter how shocking the photos may be to us this is normal to the people for them, it’s their reality, how they have fun to kill …show more content…

The girl is fully exposed, while the boy is modestly covered by a sheet. He has his arm behind his head looking straight at the camera with an almost angry and dazed expression, as if he's trying too hard to look like a man. Looking at this picture many questions arise like, ‘What was going on before this photo was taken?’ ‘Why is she exposed but he's covered?’ ‘Was he embarrassed?' Its questions like these that Clark tries to show to make the viewer realize yes they are children, that part is obvious but looking from the inside they think they're adults. It lets the viewer bring into question what criteria makes one an adult. For most adults this question doesn’t really come into mind. They just are. But when talking to children, it appears as if they are so many rules and regulations to be considered an adult and to the teens in these photos they try to match that and yet it still falls flat and is instead criticized as appalling and shocking and even child pornography. Yet this is the tangible criteria to be considered an adult and if that’s not enough than what is. These are the conversations Clark tries to spark among his viewers, not whether or not we should be shaming the teens for such acts or Clark for recording it, but question society as a whole and its values with what it is doing to raise its children when said children are growing up to end up doing drugs and having sex

More about Research Paper On Larry Clark

Open Document