Larry Sultan

{{Infobox person

| name = Larry Sultan

| image =

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| birth_name =

| birth_date = July 13, 1946

| birth_place =Brooklyn, New York, US

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2009|12|13|1946|07|13}}

| death_place =Greenbrae, California, US

| website = {{URL|larrysultan.com}}

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| known_for =

| education =University of California, Santa Barbara
San Francisco Art Institute

| employer =

| occupation = Photographer, professor

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| spouse =Katherine Sultan

| children =

| parents =

| relatives =

}}

Larry Sultan (July 13, 1946 – December 13, 2009) was an American photographer from the San Fernando Valley in California.{{cite news | url = https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/may/03/larry-sultan-here-and-home-sf-moma-photos | date = 3 May 2017 | access-date = 16 May 2017| first = Jordan | last = Riefe | newspaper = The Guardian | title = Larry Sultan: the artist-in-residence for America's middle-class suburbia}} He taught at the San Francisco Art Institute from 1978 to 1988 and at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco 1989 to 2009.

Sultan's books include Evidence (1977) with Mike Mandel, Pictures From Home (1992) and The Valley (2004). A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, his work is exhibited in museums in the United States.

Early life and education

Sultan was born on July 13, 1946, in Brooklyn, New York to a Jewish family.{{Cite news|last=Kennedy|first=Randy|date=2009-12-14|title=Larry Sultan, California Photographer, Dies at 63 (Published 2009)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/arts/14sultan.html|access-date=2021-01-16|issn=0362-4331|quote=Born in Brooklyn, Mr. Sultan was raised mostly in Los Angeles}}Avishay Artsy, [http://www.jewishjournal.com/culture/article/larry_sultan_finding_beauty_photographing_the_mundane Larry Sultan: Finding beauty photographing the mundane], The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, December 5, 2014{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2017-04-25|title=Why Larry Sultan's Staged Pictures of Parents and Porn Stars Feel So Personal|url=https://observer.com/2017/04/larry-sultan-parents-porn-stars-here-and-home-exhibition-sfmoma-review/|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2021-01-16|website=Observer|language=en-US|quote=Sultan’s parents were Jews from Brooklyn who joined a huge migration west...}} He grew up in the San Fernando Valley, part of Los Angeles, California,{{Cite magazine|last=Winant|first=Carmen|date=November 4, 2014|title=The Influence and Legacy of Larry Sultan|url=https://time.com/3562317/the-influence-and-legacy-of-larry-sultan/|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2021-01-16|magazine=Time|quote=Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1946 to Jewish parents, he moved to the San Fernando Valley}} where his parents moved when he was an infant. He graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a bachelor's degree in political science, and received a master's degree in fine arts from the San Francisco Art Institute{{cite web|url=http://larrysultan.com/cv/|title=Larry Sultan : CV|website=Larrysultan.com|access-date=2016-06-09}} in San Francisco.Randy Kennedy, [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/arts/14sultan.html?_r=0 Larry Sultan, California Photographer, Dies at 63], The New York Times, December 14, 2009{{cite web|title=Larry Sultan Biography - Stephen Wirtz Gallery|url=http://www.wirtzgallery.com/bios/bio_sultan-2.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091012074211/http://www.wirtzgallery.com/bios/bio_sultan-2.html|archive-date=October 12, 2009|access-date=January 5, 2010}}{{cite web|url=https://www.cca.edu/academics/faculty/lsultan|title=Larry Sultan - California College of the Arts|publisher=California College of the Arts|access-date=9 June 2016}}

Life and work

He started his career in the 1970s as a conceptual photographer. In 1977, he published a collection of photographs he found in corporate and government archives called Evidence with fellow photographer Mike Mandel. The New York Times characterized Evidence as "a watershed in the history of art photography." The two men also created billboards aimed at slowing down road traffic. He then published Pictures From Home, a collection of photographs taken of his parents in the San Fernando Valley from 1982 to 1992,{{cite news | url = https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/may/02/larry-sultan-pictures-from-home-review | date = 2 May 2017 | access-date = 16 May 2017| first = Sean | last = O'Hagan | authorlink = Sean O'Hagan (journalist) | newspaper = The Observer | title = Pictures from Home by Larry Sultan review – when Mom and Dad lived the dream}} whose role was to question societal expectations of gender and aging. His 2004 assignment for Maxim, which consisted of photographs of middle-class residences rented by the porn industry in the San Fernando Valley, led to another photographic series called The Valley. He photographed Paris Hilton for Interview in his parents' bedroom in his childhood home.

Sultan was an instructor of photography at his alma mater, the San Francisco Art Institute, from 1978 to 1988. He then taught at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco as Chair of the Photography Department from 1993 to 1999, and as distinguished professor of art from 1989 to 2009.

He served on the board of trustees of the Headlands Center for the Arts from 1992 to 1998. At the time of his death he was the artist trustee at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, a position he had taken up in the same year."[https://www.sfmoma.org/press/release/sfmoma-mourns-larry-sultan/ SFMOMA mourns Larry Sultan]". San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 16 December 2009. Accessed 30 May 2017

He was married to Katherine Sultan, also known as Kelly Sultan. He died of cancer on December 13, 2009, at his home in Greenbrae, California.

Publications

{{Cite book|last1=Sultan|first1=Larry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pYGuAQAACAAJ|title=How to Read Music in One Evening|last2=Mandel|first2=Mike|publisher=Clatworthy Colorvues|year=1974|isbn=|location=|pages=}}
{{Cite book|last1=DeCoster|first1=Miles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kggSAQAAIAAJ|title=Headlands: The Marin Coast at the Golden Gate|last2=Metcalf|first2=Paul|last3=Klett|first3=Mark|last4=Sultan|first4=Larry|last5=Mandel|first5=Mike|publisher=University of New Mexico Press|year=1989|isbn=9780826311511|location=Albuquerque, New Mexico|pages=}}
{{Cite book|last=Sultan|first=Larry|title=Pictures From Home|publisher=Harry N. Abrams Inc.|year=1992|isbn=978-0810937215|location=New York City, New York|pages=}}
{{Cite book|last=Sultan|first=Larry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xoRtQgAACAAJ|title=The Valley|publisher=Scalo|year=2004|isbn=9783908247791|location=Zurich|pages=}}
{{Cite book|last=Sultan|first=Larry|url=|title=Katherine Avenue|publisher=Steidl|year=2010|isbn=978-3869301358|location=Göttingen, Germany|pages=}}
{{Cite book|last=Sultan|first=Larry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EmKtpwAACAAJ|title=Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel|publisher=Distributed Art Publishers, Incorporated (D.A.P. Inc.)|year=2012|isbn=9781935202820|editor-last=Zander|editor-first=Thomas|location=New York City, New York|pages=}}
{{Cite book|last=Morse|first=Rebecca|url=|title=Larry Sultan: Here and Home|publisher=Prestel USA|others=Sandra Phillips (contributor), Philip Gefter (contributor)|year=2014|isbn=978-3791353883|location=New York City, New York|pages=}}
{{Cite book|last1=Sultan|first1=Larry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4S0DMQAACAAJ|title=Evidence|last2=Mandel|first2=Mike|publisher=Distributed Art Publishers, Incorporated (D.A.P. Inc.)|year=2017|isbn=9781942884149|location=New York City, New York|pages=}}

Awards

1976: Art in Public Places grant, National Endowment for the Arts. With Mike Mandel
1977: Photographer’s Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts. With Mike Mandel
1980: Photographer’s Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts
1983: Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation{{cite web|url=http://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/larry-sultan/|title=John Simon Guggenheim Foundation - Larry Sultan|publisher = John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation |access-date=9 June 2016}}
1986: Photographer’s Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts
1990: Fleishhacker Foundation Eureka Fellowship{{cite web|url=http://www.fleishhackerfoundation.org/grants/eureka-fellowship-program/1990-2/|title=Eureka Fellowship Program :: Past Grantees :: 1990| publisher = The Fleishhacker Foundation | access-date=2016-06-09}}
1991: Biennial Award, The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation{{cite web|url=http://louiscomforttiffanyfoundation.org/previouswinners_1991.html|title=1999 Billenium Competition Artists Awards : 1991 Winners| publisher = The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation |access-date=9 June 2016}}
1992: Photographer’s Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts

Exhibitions

=Solo exhibitions=

2012–2013: Larry Sultan's Homeland: American Story, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TX, October 2012 – January 2013.{{cite web|url=http://www.cartermuseum.org/exhibitions/larry-sultans-homeland-american-story|title=Larry Sultan's Homeland: American Story - Amon Carter Museum of American Art| publisher = Amon Carter Museum of American Art |access-date=9 June 2016}}
2014–2015: Larry Sultan: Here and Home, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA, November 2014 – May 2015;{{cite web|url=http://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/larry-sultan-here-and-home|title=Larry Sultan: Here and Home - LACMA| publisher = Los Angeles County Museum of Art |access-date=9 June 2016}} Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI, October 2015 - January 2016.{{cite web|url=http://mam.org/Larry-Sultan/|title=Larry Sultan: Here & Home, on view at the Milwaukee Art Museum from October 23, 2015–January 24. 2016| publisher = Milwaukee Art Museum |access-date=9 June 2016}}
2014–2015: Larry Sultan, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, Belgium, March-May 2015.

=Group exhibitions=

1989: Real Fictions: Recent Color Photographs by Bill Dane, John Harding and Larry Sultan, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. With Bill Dane and John Harding, curated by Sandra S. Phillips.[https://web.archive.org/web/20081022131340/https://www.sfmoma.org/info/mushist_timeline.asp Museum History: Timeline]", San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, as retrieved by the Wayback Machine on October 22, 2008. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
2011–2012: Here, Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco, CA, May 2011 – January 2012.{{cite web|url=http://pier24.org/exhibition/here/|title=Pier 24 Collection : Here|publisher=Pier 24 Photography |access-date=2016-06-09}}
2012–2013: About Face, Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco, CA, May 2012 – April 2013.{{cite web|url=http://pier24.org/exhibition/about-face/|title=About Face - Pier 24|publisher=Pier 24 Photography |access-date=9 June 2016}}
2014–2015 Secondhand, Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco, CA, August 2014 – May 2015.{{cite web|url=http://lenscratch.com/2015/01/secondhand-at-pier-24-photography/|title=Secondhand at Pier 24 Photography|date=7 January 2015|website=Lenscratch.com|access-date=2016-06-09}}

Collections

Sultan's work is held in the following permanent collections:

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL: 33 prints (as of January 2021){{cite web|accessdate=2021-01-16|title=Larry Sultan|url=https://www.artic.edu/artists/50210/larry-sultan|website=The Art Institute of Chicago}}
Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco, CA{{cite web|url=http://pier24.org/collection/|title=Pier 24 Collection : Pilara Foundation Collection | publisher=Pier 24 Photography | access-date=2016-06-09}}
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA{{cite web|url=https://www.sfmoma.org/pages/search/ | title=Search Results |access-date=June 9, 2016 | publisher = San Francisco Museum of Modern Art | url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110816083528/http://www.sfmoma.org/pages/search |archive-date=August 16, 2011 }}
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City
Tate Modern, London
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City