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“ I was born in Tulsa Oklahoma in 1943. When I was sixteen I started shooting amphetamine. I shot with my friends everyday for three years and then left town but I’ve gone back through the years. O nce the needle goes in it never comes out. “ Larry Clark. Self Portrait 1962.
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“I was born in Tulsa Oklahoma in 1943. When I was sixteen I started shooting amphetamine. I shot with my friends everyday for three years and then left town but I’ve gone back through the years. Once the needle goes in it never comes out. “Larry Clark Self Portrait 1962
Lawrence Donald "Larry" Clark (born January 19, 1943) is an American photographer. His most common subject is youth who casually engage in illegal drug use, underage sex and violence. In 1959, Clark began injecting amphetamines with his friends.Routinely carrying a camera, from 1963 to 1971 Clark produced pictures of his drug-shooting coterie that have been described by critics as "exposing the reality of American suburban life at the fringe and shattering long-held mythical conventions that drugs and violence were an experience solely indicative of the urban landscapeIn 1964, he moved to New York City to freelance, but was drafted within two months to serve in the Vietnam War. His experiences there led him to publish the book Tulsa in 1971, a photo documentary illustrating his young friends' drug use in black and white. His follow-up was Teenage Lust (1983), an "autobiography" of his teen past through the images of others. It included his family photos, more teenage drug use, graphic pictures of teenage sexual activity, and young male hustlers in Times Square, New York City.
TULSAClark’s harrowing photo book Tulsa (1971) documents the aimless drug use, violence, and sex activities of Clark’s circle of friends in his hometown. Taken in three protracted series between 1963 and 1971, the Tulsa photographs combine the documentary style and narrative sequencing of a photo essay with startling intimacy and emotional intensity.The graphic and controversial subject matter, the seemingly illicit nature of the viewer's engagement, the remarkable low-light photography, and the restrained editorial pacing distinguish the extraordinary new style of subjective documentary that these pictures announced.
TEENAGE LUSTClark’s second book, Teenage Lust (1983), was subtitled “An Autobiography of Larry Clark,” though it is not autobiographical in any conventional sense. It includes early family snapshots and follows a rough biographical chronology, but Clark's primary intention seems to be to “turn back the years” and to relive moments of his own teen past through images of others. It includes his quest for a utopian hippie life in New Mexico: and concludes with a powerful and touching series of portraits of young male hustlers in the Times Square area. More sprawling, experimental, and explicit than Tulsa, Teenage Lust has at its core the rawness, vulnerability, and uncertainty of adolescence, a key strain that runs throughout Clark’s work.
