"Photography is there to construct the idea of us as a great family, and we go on vacations and take these pictures, and then we look at them later, and we say, 'Isn't this a great family?' So photography is instrumental in creating family not only as a memento, a souvenir, but also a kind of mythology." (Larry Sultan)
Interestingly, I was having a conversation the other day about how much I appreciate archive images. They are so much more than just a picture, they are history and each, and everyone has a story behind it - Why did the person take this photograph? What happened just before? What happened just after? Was it staged? Was it candid? I love being able to visualise or imagine what happens straight after a photograph is taken as for all we know the people within it could be in the middle of an argument but have had to stop to have their photo taken. They might not even know each other, I know that a couple of times, I have been on a night out and the next day I will look through my photographs and find photos of my friends and me next to strangers, but to someone who doesn't know this, they may believe that they were something to do with us. Photographs are also such a fantastic way of capturing memories, looking back at them allows you to remember what was happening at the time, or to remember the holiday you went on. I am so grateful for archives as I feel it helps me to get to know the person better. I think through completing this project about Jake's nan; I have been able to understand who she is by looking at her old photographs instead of only knowing the woman she is now, which I have discovered is very different to who she once was.
"I'd get set, I'd get comfortable, and he says to me 'Don't smile', which would absolutely irritate me because when he says 'Don't smile' in my own mind I have no idea what he is projecting. What is he trying to tell me to do?" "I remember that picture so distinctly sitting on the bed, shirt and tie dressed up and I looked like a full on lost soul and I look at the picture and I say 'That's not me!'" - (Larry Sultan's father, Irving)
Larry Sultan, Dad on Bed, 1985
Larry Sultan’s project ‘Pictures from home ‘ was first published in 1992 and displays a visual representation of his family home, it is a very staged set of photographs where he has asked his parents to pose in front of his camera to create this, what seems to be, false reality of how he sees his parents and himself.
The book itself has a very stereotypical American vibe to it, this is demonstrated through the clothing, the colours and even the haircuts. His use of archival imagery really helps to get a good sense of his family and childhood life as well as the text next to the images. This allows the viewer to fully understand what is going on and his thinking behind his decisions.
Researching into this project has really helped me with a couple of pf issues I was having with my own, I was so worried that the book would be too long and people would become less interested after seeing a few pages, however going through this book, I can see that with the 192 pages that this book holds I did not feel bored at all when going through it and I did not lose interest, so hopefully this will also be the case for my project. I was also slightly worried about the text is too long and too overpowering. I feel that through seeing the issues I was worried about in someone else’s work and not seeing them as I problem, I am able to carry on and not be too concerned!