Celebrated photographer Larry Sultan's shots of his parents span a decade

Larry Sultan’s photography is imbued with both the traditions of documentary and staging, and captures suburban life often in his hometown in the San Fernando Valley. Pictures From Home is a project that spanned a decade featuring his mother and father as primary subjects.

In an excerpt from the book of the work, Larry describes what drove him to continue the project: ”It has more to do with love than sociology… These are my parents. From that simple fact, everything follows. I realise that beyond the rolls of film and the few good pictures, the demand of my project and my confusion about its meaning, is the wish to take photography literally. To stop time.”

The photographs are beautifully lit, often funny and the clothes, cars and appliances are very much of their era. Many of the photographs are staged, many candid and all points in between; the situations, postures and occasionally drab expressions give Pictures From Home an atmosphere that can only be true of photography of and about family life. Only in retrospect do these interactions seem momentous, and here Larry captures that perfectly.