Larry Sultan's
Pictures From Home was a decade long project focusing on his parents retirement years in Suburban San Fernando Valley. Sultan had initially conceived of the project as an exploration into the feelings of powerlessness and frustration that his father Ivring was experiencing, as a result of a forced early retirement from his position as vice president of a major corporation. The project became far more encompassing with the inclusion of his mother, metamorphosing into a considerably more personal journey rooted in the complexities of family dynamics. As Sultan said in an interview:
When I was working on Pictures from Home, my parents’ voices – their stories as well as their arguments with my version of our shared history – were crucial to the book. They called into question the documentary truth the pictures seemed to carry. I wanted to subvert the sentimental home movies and snapshots with my more contentious images of suburban daily life, but at the same time I wished to subvert my images with my parents’ insights into my point of view.
Practicing Golf SwingImage © Larry Sultan
