Larry Sultan | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 13, 1946 Brooklyn, New York, US |
| Died | December 13, 2009 (aged 63) |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | University of California, Santa Barbara San Francisco Art Institute |
| Occupation(s) | Photographer, professor |
| Spouse | Katherine Sultan |
| Website | larrysultan |
Larry Sultan (July 13, 1946 – December 13, 2009) was an American photographer from the San Fernando Valley in California.[1] 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.[1]
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.
Sultan was born on July 13, 1946, in Brooklyn, New York to a Jewish family.[1][2][3][4] He grew up in the San Fernando Valley, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California,[1][5] where his parents moved when he was an infant.[2][3] 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[6] in San Francisco.[7][8][9]
He started his career in the 1970s as a conceptual photographer.[3] In 1977, he published a collection of photographs he found in corporate and government archives called Evidence with fellow photographer Mike Mandel.[2][7][3] The New York Times characterized Evidence as "a watershed in the history of art photography."[2] The two men also created billboards aimed at slowing down road traffic.[7][3] He then published Pictures From Home, a collection of photographs taken of his parents in the San Fernando Valley from 1982 to 1992,[10] whose role was to question societal expectations of gender and aging.[3] 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.[2][3] He photographed Paris Hilton for Interview in his parents' bedroom in his childhood home.[3]
Sultan was an instructor of photography at his alma mater, the San Francisco Art Institute, from 1978 to 1988.[8] 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.[2][9]
He served on the board of trustees of the Headlands Center for the Arts from 1992 to 1998.[8] 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.[11]
He was married to Katherine Sultan, also known as Kelly Sultan.[2] He died of cancer on December 13, 2009, at his home in Greenbrae, California.[2]
Sultan's work is held in the following permanent collections:
