Chapter 1- An introduction to Larry Clark’s works, where it began, whether it

was successful and why, his influences.

Larry Clark was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1943. He spent most of his

younger years assisting his mother who worked as a door-to-door baby

photographer. Clark’s early exposure to photography probably contributed

towards his career later on in his life.

His relationship with his father, a sullen man who helped his mother run the

family photography business where Clark got his start, seems to be at the

heart of his ungainly obsession with youth.

We can also consider that the exposure to capturing young children within

photographs at an early age gave him cause to be curious about the topic of

innocence of children.

“I think my father was ashamed of me for being a late bloomer. I was

very skinny and stuttered very badly,” says Clark. “I always wanted to

be someone else, anybody else but myself. I see that in my work. I

photograph a lot of these kids and I think deep down [my work] is

about missing all of that, missing a normal childhood.” (Larry Clark,

date)

When Clark hit his mid teens in 1959 he began injecting himself with

amphetamines. Between the years of 1963 to 1971 Clark was always

armed with his camera and spent his teenage year taking drugs,

photographing his activities and generally getting into trouble. From his

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 experiences and relationship with drugs took him photographically onto

a place where he exposed the mundane suburban lives of every day

actions of teenagers

Already in his young years Clark had experienced many things a young adult

would not usually have been exposed to. If we take into consideration on how

important the contribution of lifestyle would be within his teenage years and

how it would become a massive influence on Clark in his later years we can

already see that photographically Clark would be taking photos of people due

to his experience with the family business.

Clark then compiled the images he had taken in his teenager years and

created a book called Tulsa, which was published in 1971.

Within Clark’s book, there are numerous images of his friends injecting

themselves with amphetamines and brandishing guns. There are also pictures

of childhood death and accidental gun wounds. Every photograph is a real

eye-opener and one must pause for quite some time to completely absorb the

content. The framing is beautiful, which is a strange yet alluring contrast to

the scenes of violence, squalor, drug taking and open sexuality on display.

There seems to be no discourse on the rights and wrongs of drug taking in

Clark’s book; there are no enforced biases, angles or agendas. He simply

conveys a lifestyle unknown and unimaginable to most, letting his images do

the talking.

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Clark's photographs are completely un-judging and honest, as indeed

documentary photography should be. However, this is achieved without

disregard for the aesthetic. There appears to be no intent to Clark's work - he

doesn't appear to be advising the viewer not to do drugs, but simply offering

us a chance to see the world of those whose lives have become orientated

around amphetamines.

All of the images are very grainy black and white shots. This effect gives off a

stark and clear reality of the subject matter Clark is photographing. It is

effective because there is no distraction from the image by colour. The use of

high ISO, and the use of grain in the image, provides a dimension of reality.

Had the photographs been in colour, the saturation from them might distract

the viewer from the subject matter. You might say that colour helps the

image feel real, as it almost manipulates viewers into seeing every detail

within the image.

Clark’s sole intention with these images was to portray the dull and mundane

activities of his friends. It was not really about how they were composed or

the extra details predominantly noticed when colour is used. This way of

using black and white film - shooting voyeuristically – is what gave Clark his

trademark style.

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Some of the images within Clark’s book have captioned text which informs

the reader of whom the captured persons within the photograph are. Other

images have text illustrating the scenario. These images are shocking,

thought-provoking, and raw. The use of text with the images isn’t

overwhelming or intrusive towards Clarks work. He uses the text just to

illustrate key points such as names and opinions of the subjects in his

photographs.

"I wanted to present the way kids see things, but without all this

baggage...You know...they're living in the moment not thinking about

anything beyond that and that's what I wanted to catch. And I wanted

the viewer to feel like you're there with them -- you can be there

fucking, smoking dope, having sex..." (Larry Clark, 1980)

The experiences photographed by Clark seem to have made a huge

impression on him. Clark felt that he needed to photograph what was going

on around him, with the people he felt close to, was a positive action.

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 From a very early age, Clark was exposed to the practice of

photographing the young. His skills with this work were transferred to

documenting the activities himself and his friends partook. Clark went

on to publish a further book entitles ‘Teenage Lust’. This second book

focused on a collection of his own family photos, photographs of

teenage sex in New York, explicit drug use and Time Square hustlers.

He used this book as a memoir of his teenage life, but illustrated by

others he related too.

We can clearly identify Clark’s themes in ‘Tulsa’. He uses his photographs to

explore his exposure to drug use, sex, and violence. We need to remember

that with these themes being graphic and dark subjects, Clark is

compassionate to his subjects and photographs them with brutal honesty and

clarity.

When ‘Tulsa’ first appeared in 1971, the graphic depictions of sex, violence

and drug abuse by the youth of Oklahoma were acclaimed by critics for

exposing the reality of American suburban life at the fringe and for shattering

long-held mythical conventions that drugs and violence were an experience

solely indicative of the urban landscape. These raw, sometimes morbid

images were taken in three series of shoots in 1963, 1968 and 1971, and

reveal a youth culture progressively overwhelmed by self-destruction.

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The first of Clark’s images to be discussed further is a photograph of a

pregnant woman injecting amphetamines into her arm.

(Tulsa, page 41 Clark 1971)

As previously mentioned, Clark uses high ISO film for all his images in this

book. This produces pure and intense feeling of lucidity and reality. It

contributes to Clark’s style - that not only is he photographing something he

has an absolute first-hand experience with, he is still not exploiting the people

to whom he is close.

Clark’s use of black and white film grants a curious view into his world, if he

were to use colour film this might detract from the content and general feel of

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the image. Colour brings saturation to an image and these images have

enough internal saturation from the subjects. They are allowing Clark to

document some very intimate and incontrovertible moral acts.

The placement of the images within the book is interesting. At the beginning

of the book, Clark has largely included images of his male friends. Towards

the middle of the book he starts to include images of his female friends and

their involvement of drug taking and fornication.

Throughout ‘Tulsa’ a narrative emerges. At the beginning, there are images of

Clarks’ male friends smoking, shooting up, and generally relaxing with each

other. This then transcends into images of both sexes socialising and taking

drugs together. We then see images of accidental gunshots and then the

pivotal image of the woman who is clearly pregnant injecting herself with

drugs.

From these acts we can see physical violence we can only assume from the

woman’s partner or her parents or brother could be responsible. We see no

indication of any violence within in Clarks book apart from what looks like

adolescent stupidly by a self-imposed gunshot wound.

As we move further through the book we see topics emerging which could be

implied as sexual, but Clark only uses graphic images of drug taking, not

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penetrative sex. However, in a high percentage of the images we do see a

large amount of nudity.

‘It wasn't that visible, and no one had really, you know, done

something like that at all. People could have said, "You're talking about

a bunch of stupid people putting needles in their arms. . . . What a

stupid life. . . . What a bunch of idiots." I didn't know what people

were going to say, and it was really scary to do that book because I

didn't know how people were going to take it. And it turns out that

people started living that story, you know? And they're still living it.

You know, from the beginning, you can take that book and you can

find people living out the book still today — every day.

I just had no idea if people were going to laugh at me and say, "Who

cares?" Or not, you know. And in fact, I've gotten nothing but great

reviews about that book and incredibly great response from people

who have seen it — the critics and everybody. They all say it's the

greatest thing. But just before I published the book — just before I

went down to LA to the printer — I was in San Francisco for a week,

and I put photographs up on the wall at the San Francisco Art

Institute. And a guy from the newspaper reviewed the show and said,

"Who cares? So what? This is dull and boring and not exciting." (Clark,

1976)

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Throughout ‘Tulsa’ a narrative emerges. At the beginning, there are images

of Clarks’ male friends smoking, shooting up, and generally relaxing with each

other. This then transcends into images of both sexes socialising and taking

drugs together. We then see images of accidental gunshots and then the

pivotal image of the woman who is clearly pregnant injecting herself with

drugs.

Sympathy towards the subjects in the images is created by the lighting used;

all of Clark’s images are naturally lit. The use of this natural light casts a soft

mask over his subjects. It’s an interesting paradox, the soft light illuminating

the pregnant woman’s outstretched arm as she slides the needle into her

vein. A contributing dynamic is the clear and pure daylight streaming through

the window, onto something so dark, and so full of demons and addiction.

Additionally, the crucial connection with the person in the photograph is

created by Clark’s use of a focal point – in this case it is the woman’s hand

injecting the drugs from the syringe. When creating this connection with a

subject in a photograph the eyes are generally the best way to gage emotion

and a personal connection. However, within this image the subject is not

looking at us as she is occupied with injecting herself with drugs. We cannot

see her eyes due to her hair being in the way so we cannot make a personal

connection to her. Clark has instead compensated for this with the focal point.

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 The composure of this image is another element to consider. Clark has a

range of images within in this book that have been composed with the

subject placed directly in front of the lens. This is notable especially when his

subjects are in the middle of shooting their drugs. Clark is not an invasive

photographer, he is happy to stand back and photograph what was in front of

him and only step in where he felt it was appropriate.

The next image to be discussed illustrates Clark’s interest in death.

An open casket is in the middle of the image. Due to the standing angle,

looking downwards, we are able to see directly into it where a baby, no more

than 6 months old, lays dead.

Around the casket lay flowers wrapped in ribbons, and a man is reaching

over the casket laying more flowers to the right of the coffin. He is holding

the lid of the casket open. We can tell that the figure is a man due to his

clothing and his hair cut. He’s not looking at the camera but we can assume

he is looking at the deceased child.

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Clark gives no indication as to who this man is or what his connection is with

the child, but we can assume from the outstretched arm across the coffin that

there the man wants to protect the child.

The remainder of the book includes images of older individuals – a mixture of

men and women taking drugs. We also view a collection of images portraying

a police informant as part of the frame.

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(Tulsa, page 45 Clark 1971)

Throughout ‘Tulsa’ we view themes of young people injecting themselves with

drugs, participating in sex and violence. Another of Clark’s obsessions seems

to be death, as shown within the above image.

As we see through the book, there are obvious references to sex, but not in

a graphic nature. However, we can see the result of sex in a couple of the

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images – a baby. As the book progresses we are shown the possible

consequences of their lifestyle; the death of the child.

Towards the end of the book, Clark uses his images to indicate the end to

the cycle of that stage of his childhood. I have discussed previously the image

of the heavily pregnant mother shooting drugs into her vein and now we see

in the next two images the consequences of her actions.

I feel these two images – the woman injecting and the dead baby - are the

most poignant in the book. Clark seems to be taking responsibility for his

previous actions by showing these images to the viewer.

The image of the dead baby is one of solemnity, peace, and shock. As with

all the images in ‘Tusla’, Clark keeps to his standard use of black and white

film.

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