SimonConnollyCM206

We Are Family is an episode of the docuseries “Genius of Photography”. This episode focuses on photographers who have ditched the streets and begun photographing the home, the self, and private life. We are introduced to many revolutionary photographers such as Diane Arbus, Tony Vaccaro, and Larry Clark. All of the photographers discussed in this episode have their own seperate ideas for photographs but share the aim of having their subjects be ‘real’ and ‘themselves’.

The photographer that stood out to me the most was Larry Clark. My interest was drawn to Clark because his real images serve as much more than political representation, which was common for photographers of his time. Clark began his photography journey during the Vietnam war. Instead of photographing the hardships of the war, Clark opted to take photos of his own life. His project simply titled Tulsa was one that reveals the common nature of young adults in the 60’s. The explicit images featured in Tulsa show Clark and his friends partacing in drugs, firing guns, and having sexual relations with women. Though the images seem to be of lower class kids with nothing to lose, the people featured were actually suburbanites from middle-class families. The unrealistic idea that people from a higher class aren’t comparable to those beneath them is heavily challenged in this project. There is no malicious intent behind Clark’s photographs and he means to target nobody, to him he is simply capturing his happy, fun life in photographs.