Ben Pietrusinski - Style Assignment (Larry Sultan)

 Larry Sultan

            Larry Sultan has a sense of humor and narrative in his photography. He photographed billboards that did not truly have a message or company name on them. He found that this was ironic because the company’s name, logo, product / service and message should all be identifiable almost immediately on a billboard. These photographs are colorful, vintage and humorous. 

            He did some underwater photography of people learning to swim. He found humor in this because the people were learning to swim, and he was able to capture the sensuality and physicality of their bodies underwater. While most of the photos look silly and goofy, it seems as though he creates an alternate universe by capturing the lower halves of bodies.

            In Pictures From Home, Sultan photographs his parents because he wants them to live forever. Instead of taking professional and stereotypical portraits of them, Sultan photographs them candidly. In one photo, his mom is giving his father some side-eye. In another, his father is practicing his golf swing in the house. He truly captures the everyday life of an old-married couple – bickering, bantering, joking, but still very loving.

            In The Valley, Sultan photographed different sets where adult films and pornographies were being filmed in everyday Valley homes. He found humor and irony in the setting being just like an every-day house, except that pornos were being filmed in them. Sultan wrote “I’ve been on sets where you see a porn actress standing in a room naked and you start looking around and you see details – a mezuzah and a Book of Knowledge on the bookshelf. She does something to that room and that room does something to her.”