Photographer Larry Sultan, who broke out in 1977 with the book Evidence — a collaboration with Mike Mandel collecting odd photographs from government and corporate archives — died of cancer last weekend at the age of 63.
Larry Sultan Mom Posing for me and Dad watching TV, 1984In later years Sultan published Pictures from Home — a book of photos of his parents — and The Valley, a series depicting homes in Southern California which had been rented for use as XXX film sets.
Larry Sultan Boxers, Mission Hills, 2000,from the series The Valley
A few years ago, Sultan shot a campaign for Bottega Veneta with art direction influenced (I would guess) by The Valley and Pictures from Home, somewhat steered toward the clean angularity of Julius Shulman.
Quite a career, that guy — read Randy Kennedy's obituary in yesterday's New York Times. View images from and order the books Evidence and The Valley here and here. Pictures from Home requires a search and some spare change — I recommend checking abebooks.com....
Update: This week Fresh Air re-played an interview with Sultan from 1989, when he was working on Pictures from Home — click here to listen.