Favorite Photo Reviews 8: Philip Gefter's "Sex and Longing in Larry Sultan's California Suburbs"

Larry Sultan, Business Page (1985)

This is the third post in my “Favorite Photo Reviews” series. Today’s pick is Philip Gefter’s “Sex and Longing in Larry Sultan’s California Suburbs” (“Photo Booth,” newyorker.com, April 9, 2017).

I chose this piece because, firstly, it introduced me to the work of an amazing photographer I’d never heard of before - Larry Sultan; and secondly, I love the title. The great thing about this review is the photography itself - eleven images, arranged slideshow-style. I remember flicking through them for the first time. I came to #4, Business Page (1985). It blew my mind. I’d never seen anything like it. I love light. I love shadows. I love reflections. This picture had all three of those elements, plus something ravishingly extra - illumination. The way the natural light illumines the newspaper page is extraordinary. It’s a dazzling, transfixing, original composition. It went directly into my personal collection of great photographs. 

The writing in this piece in not too shabby either. I relish this observation: “Larry’s photographs possess a quality of hard-edged California light, heightened color, optical precision, and, often, domestic familiarity made more fascinating by the power of his imagination.”