July 12, 2004
Larry Sultan: The Valley
So, why does The XXX Project bug me, and Larry Sultan’s work doesn’t? It’s a good question: they are both mainstream photographers who have ventured, like Victorian explorers, into the heart of the porn industry, and returned to tell the tale.
Part of it is that I just admire Sultan’s work, technically: damn, I wish I could light sets like he does. Part of it is while they are both playing amateur anthropologist, Sultan does not condescend as if the porn industry was a tribe of rare monkies. “This is the first time these Porn People have ever seen a Real Photographer. Let’s watch their interesting rites as they explore the shiny objects we present them with.”
For certain mainstream entertainment types who decide to check out the porn world, they make the ironic distance clear. They may be in the porn world, but they are certainly not of it. They want the reflected glamour of the porn world without acquiring the bottom-caste air that clings to those who actually work in it.
I don’t get that from Sultan’s work; it just seem friendly, not patronizing. (If you’re in San Francisco before 1 August, check it out at SF MOMA.)
posted 22:33