The Perfect Childhood

by Larry Clark

First edition thus, first Scalo printing. Hardcover. Paper-covered boards, with dust jacket. 175 pp. with 110 four-color and 48 duotone plates. Includes Clark's controversial black and white photographs from the "Tulsa" and Teenage Lust" work, as well as previously unpublished color and black and white images. 11 x 9 inches.

Genres: Photography, Art, Nonfiction

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1995

About the author

Larry Clark is an American photographer and filmmaker known for his raw and unfiltered depictions of youth culture. Often controversial, Clark’s black-and-white images unflinchingly capture overt sexuality, drug use, and violence, as seen in his iconic photobook Tulsa (1971) and his debut feature film Kids (1995). Clark is able to achieve a level of vulnerability and intimacy with his subjects. As he explains, “I am a storyteller. I've never been interested in just taking the single image and moving on. I always like to stay with the people I'm photographing for long periods of time.”

Born on January 19, 1943 in Tulsa, OK, Clark studied at a commercial photography school after working as an assistant to his mother, who worked as a portrait photographer of children. His large-scale retrospective “Kiss The Past Hello” was exhibited at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 2010, and he has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Galerie Urbi et Orbi in Paris, the Taka Ishii Gallery in Tokyo, and at the International Center of Photography in New York. Clark currently lives and works between Los Angeles, CA and New York, NY. The artist’s works are held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Fotomuseum Winterthur in Switzerland, among others.

Reviews

[BonGard]

نمیتونم نمره‌ای بدم چون دقیقن همون مشکلی رو دارم که با اکثر کارهای کلارک دارم
صفحات زیادی فقط برای یک حرکت جنسی صرف شدن که میشد در تعداد نماهای کمتری نشونش داد
لری کلارک از اون هنرمنداست که هیچوقت نیت‌اش رو نمیفهمم

[rndgmoat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Clark's "Teenage Lust" and "Tulsa" books are landmarks and really quite stunning if you can get your hands on a copy. (I had to view mine with a librarian looking over my shoulder at the UWM library).

This, however, is kind of a pointless cash-in that really doesn't make much sense as to why it exists. Meh.

[Little Miss Esoteric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a fan.