Larry Sultan - R.I.P

A great photographer died recently. Larry Sultan, a fine art photographer died back in December due to cancer. I was reading one of my month-to-month must read photo blogs by Magnum photographer, Alec Soth.

I first came across Sultan's work during my second or third year in SFAI. A teacher of mine suggested it to me even though I've seen the work but what really kept me curious was the fact that Sultan was a former student at SFAI. As it is with most schools they like to boast the fact that certain artists, etc, came from this school. Sultan was one of those (other notables Annie Leibovitz, Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead). When I started looking at this work I was amazed - the tone of work, particularly in his Pictures from home series (the two pictures above, a series about his parents) shows a intimacy with the subject separated with a distance which is akin to the documentary style.
What is really special is that he had his show and book The Valley (cover picture for the book, same title below), a look into the pornographic film industry in California debuted at the SFMOMA while I was still in SF. A little time after that the staff at SFAI managed to get him for a talk which turned out to be a sell out crowd.

I can't say it enough but if you're given the opportunity to see work in person, do it. Be it a film or a painting or a sculpture, see it. I was amazed at the scale (most of the prints were 40"x60", the middle size 30"x40") but most of all I was pleased with the presence.
When I read this news from Alec Soth's blog, the only thing I could think was that another great photographer that has influenced me as left the building. Larry, we're still following your lead.