Not for Kids

I was recently lucky enough to be in Paris, and a Basquait/Larry Clark exhibition was on at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. It was mind blowing. Larry Clark was an 18+ exhibition titled Kiss the Past Hello, and I was stupid enough to question why that would be, even after being an avid follower of his films... It's not like Kids, or Ken Park were exactly comfortable viewing pleasure, but I have admired his boldness when it comes to directing for a long time, and was keen to check out his photographic works, after previously reading about Teenage Lust and Tulsa.

Tulsa was a series of photographs that Clark captured between the years of 1963-71, when he himself was in his youth (born: 1943). It is a documentary style book that was released in 1971, and showing the emotional intensity of different youths' lives residing in Clark's hometown Tulsa, Oklahoma. The book is constructed in a narrative order, and the subjects within the photos seem unengaged with the photographer. The content and graphic, although extremely graphic and controversial, the book was always seen to be as an extension of Clark's real life... a scrapbook.

Tulsa

His next book was titled Teenage Lust, and the exhibition featured many photographs from this particular publication, which, although was presented as a 'autobiographical', it is not at all conventional. It is split into three sections: family photographs, his move to New York, and a life in New Mexico that Clark had when trying to chase living a utopian hippie life (unsuccessfully). The photographs, once again, address drugs and sex in youth, but this isn't to be confused with Clark glamorizing the use of underage drugs, the photographs are graphic and unappealing. Clark tends to have a simple knack of doing this; in all of his films he represents none of these lifestyles that are so commonly represented as romantic and glamorized, as a life that would be at all fulfilling. The book was released in 1983, years before Clark started to direct film. 

Teenage Lust

His more recent works focus again on youths, particularly one subject of a Latino-American decent, a skater/surfer who resides in a low income area near Venice Beach. Although its main focus is again on youths, Clark, in his later age, has begun to take photos of young in more innocent and posed way, not like the fly-on-the-wall aspect that his previous work was so entrenched in.

Besides this, the exhibition also included a lot of homage to actor Brad Renfro, who had most notably worked with Clark in Bully (2001). Renfro was an actor who had done various independent films before his untimely death in 2008 after an accidental heroin overdose. The images of Renfro spanned across a wall, and also included newspaper clippings of his life and death, including his obituary, and various Polaroid shots of him with other co-stars of Bully. 

A young Brad Renfro

I have been a fan of Larry Clark ever since I tracked down the film Kids when I was 16 years old, after reading so many articles about it recently being allowed to sold in the Australia, after 15 or so years of a ban. Kids was memorable, and haunting. And no matter how many times I have seen it, the opening sequence of banter that occurs between Tully and Casper will always make me cringe in disbelief.

Chloe Sevigny - legeeeennnnndddd

Great soundtrack as well.

Big love,

Liv