Larry Sultan, the American photographer known for his intimate portrayals of domestic life and porn sets, has been the subject of a new book, 'Water Over Thunder', published in collaboration with his widow Kelly and son Max. The book includes a 1969 military psychiatric review that described Sultan as an 'anxiety-prone individual' who felt like a 'left-out observer looking inside', a quality that defined his photographic career.
Sultan, who died in 2009 at age 63, photographed ordinary middle-class homes in California's San Fernando Valley rented out for porn shoots, made a portrait of Paris Hilton in his parents' bedroom, and took underwater pictures of people learning to swim in San Francisco. His work moved between documentary, fiction and appropriation, capturing everyday America with a hazy familiarity and an eye for the idiosyncratic.
Born in Brooklyn in 1946 to Jewish parents, Sultan moved to Los Angeles in 1950 as part of the 'postwar quest for a better life'. His relationship with his father was complicated; his father called him a 'loser' for being an artist. Sultan studied photography at the San Francisco Art Institute in the 1970s, finding the scene there 'boring' and preferring to witness life on the streets.
His series 'The Valley', shot from 1998 to 2004, documented over 100 kitschly decorated homes used for porn shoots, capturing the contrast between mundane interiors and performed desire. Sultan described feeling like a 'forensic photographer searching out evidence', planted in the terrain of his own ambivalence between fascination and repulsion.
'Water Over Thunder' pieces together Sultan's reflections, journal entries, letters and images, offering an intimate portrait of the photographer in his own words. His widow Kelly noted that he hoped to capture 'something mysterious that was just out of view' by focusing on daily life.
