James Stone Photo, New York
Simon Lee Gallery 12 Berkeley Street London W1J 8DT 1st – 6th July 2014
A large wooden crate, stacked with a wide selection one-of-a-kind photographs by Larry Clark, will appear in Simon Lee Gallery London this summer for one week only, 1 July – 6 July 2014. Printed mainly at pharmacies and one hour photo shops by Clark from 1992 – 2010, these unique 4 x 6 in. and 5 x 7 in. colour prints will be on sale to the public priced at £100 each. Visitors will be able to flick through handfuls of snapshots at a time, gaining new insights into his working method as well as having the opportunity to come away with an original Larry Clark.
The photographs in the collection and were taken by Clark on or around the locations of his films from that time – including Kids (1995), Bully (2001), Ken Park (2002), and Wassup Rockers (2005), among others. The pictures document the people, kids and friends he was interacting with during this period, many playing leading roles in his films. The collection of photographs also includes outtakes from a calendar shoot for the street brand Supreme, as well as many unique portraits, self portraits and various snapshots.
Having recently turned 71, Clark found himself faced with the question of what to do with the thousands of unique prints he had accumulated over the years. Instead of gifting to museum archives, or selling at auction, Clark has decided to distribute a large portion of his archive to the friends and fans that have played a central role, sometimes literally, in his career to date. In his words, the sale is for ‘all the kids that come to my shows in their thousands and could never afford 10 to 15 thousand dollars for a print (…) this is a pay back to all the skate rats and collectors who would like a souvenir so I can die happy.’
Clark’s plan was first realised earlier this year, when thousands of his photographs were on view and for sale at Home Alone 2 gallery in the Lower East Side, New York. Under the supervision of the gallerist, his actor friend Leo Fitzpatrick (who made his debut in Kids), throngs of Clark fans were given the unique opportunity to rummage through this archive in a quest to select that perfect souvenir.
Similarly in London, a large wooden crate set in the centre of the gallery space, stacked neatly with these one-of-a-kind photographs, will be presented to a London audience. Represented in the photography collections of many major museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Museum of Modern Art, New York, this is a rare opportunity to gain access to the photographer’s vast archive while also having the potential to walk away with a piece of it.
Simon Lee Gallery 12 Berkeley Street London W1J 8DT 1st – 6th July 2014 www.simonleegallery.com
About Larry Clark
Larry Clark was born in Tulsa in 1943, he lives and works in New York and Los Angeles. In 1995 Larry Clark released his first feature film at the Cannes Film Festival, ‘Kids’ which was lauded as an instant classic. Other film projects include Another Day in Paradise (1998), Bully (2001), Ken Park (2002), Wassup Rockers (2005) and his recent feature Marfa Girl which premiered November 2012 at the 7th Rome Film Festival won the Golden Marcus Aurelius Prize. Larry Clark’s work is represented in the photography collections of many major museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Pinakothek Der Moderne, Munich. Key solo exhibitions include: Larry Clark, Museet for Fotokunst Brandts, Odense, Denmark (2012); Larry Clark, CO Berlin, Berlin (2012); Larry Clark: Kiss the Past Hello, Musee d’Art modern de la ville de Paris, Paris (2010); Larry Clark Retrospective, Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland (2009).
