Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris 11 avenue du Président Wilson 75116 Paris France
Mois de la photo 2010 Point information 5,7 rue de Fourcy 75004 Paris France
Larry Clark thinks back on almost fifty years of creativity, during which he never stopped reliving and showing the reality of adolescence: a moment of freedom and transition when everything is possible, from the love to the hell of artificial paradises, through skateboard or rock’n roll. Since 1971, when Tulsa was published, Larry Clark’s work has profoundly influenced American photography and cinema. Tulsa was a seminal book for the counter-culture of despair and violence of a generation mixing drugs, sex and firearms. Clark translates the experiences and anguish of adolescence through photography books such as Teenage Lust (1983), The Perfect Childhood (1993), Los Angeles 2003-2006; and memorable films like Kids (1995), Bully (2003), Ken Park (2005).
What is striking in his pictures, beyond their harshness and dark seduction, is their great power. It puts Larry Clark in line with Robert Frank or William Klein, allowing deep intimacy in the documentary, and carried par an uncompromising quest for truth – sometimes to the point of censure.
Works never before shown by Larry Clark will be presented alongside the mythical images of Tulsa or Teenage Lust: portraits of his mother – who initiated him to photography – vintage prints from Tulsa reframed by the author, collages. A 1960’s film on his life in Tulsa, recently recovered, will be projected for the first time, showing the cinematographic dimension of this work, his thought process in sequences more than fixed plates. The 1990 and 2000 series confirm his sharp look at youth such as America refuses to see it, from Kids period skaters, or young Venezuelan skateboarder from the LA ghetto Jonathan Velasquez who Larry Clark followed through his transition to adulthood from 2003 to today.
This ensemble constitutes a formidable autobiography, mirror from America’s depths. The Musée d’Art moderne presents a selection of American photos of the seventies and the eighties loaned by the Maison Européenne de la Photographie.