__NOTOC__
''Tulsa'' is a collection of
black-and-white
Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey.
Media
The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...
photographs by
Larry Clark
Lawrence Donald Clark (born January 19, 1943) is an American film director, photographer, writer and film producer who is best known for his controversial teen film ''Kids'' (1995) and his photography book ''Tulsa'' (1971). His work focuses prim ...
of the life of young people in
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...
. Its publication in 1971 "caused a sensation within the photographic community", leading to a new interest in autobiographical work.
[Therese Mulligan and David Wooters, eds., ''Photography : from 1839 to today : George Eastman House, Rochester, NY'', Taschen, p.664.]
Later better known for directing the movie ''
Kids
Kid, Kids, KIDS, and K.I.D.S. may refer to:
Common meanings
* Colloquial term for a child or other young person
** Also for a parent's offspring regardless of age
* Engage in joking
* Young goats
* The goat meat of young goats
* Kidskin, lea ...
,'' Clark was a Tulsa native and a drug addict during the period (1963–1971) when he took the photographs.
The book is prefaced by the statement:
i was born in tulsa oklahoma in 1943. when i was sixteen i started shooting amphetamine. i shot with my friends everyday for three years and then left town but i've gone back through the years. once the needle goes in it never comes out. L.C.
''Tulsa'', Clark's first book, was published in 1971 by
Lustrum Press, owned by
Ralph Gibson
Ralph Gibson (born January 16, 1939) is an American art photographer best known for his photographic books. His images often incorporate fragments with erotic and mysterious undertones, building narrative meaning through contextualization and su ...
. It has been claimed that thanks to
Gene Pitney
Gene Francis Alan Pitney (February 17, 1940 – April 5, 2006) was an American singer-songwriter and musician.
Pitney charted 16 top-40 hits in the United States, four in the top ten. In the United Kingdom, he had 22 top-40 hit singles, inclu ...
's 1960 song "
Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa
"Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and was originally a hit in 1963 for Gene Pitney.
Production
The song's lyrics tell of a traveling man who detours to a romance in a motel and ends up never retur ...
", Tulsa then represented "young love and family values"; Clark's book challenged this with scenes of young people having sex, shooting up drugs, and playing with guns.
Clark has said that he "didn't take these photographs as a voyeur, but as a participant in the phenomenon", and commentary on the book has emphasized how Clark did not just live with the teenagers portrayed but "did drugs with them, slept with them, and included himself in the photographs"; this conferred an authenticity on the work, which brought it great praise.
[Parr and Badger, ''The Photobook'' vol. 1, p.260.]
Criticism of ''Tulsa'' has not been limited to a visceral rejection of images of drugtaking, casual sex, and gunplay;
Martin Parr
Martin Parr (born 23 May 1952) is a British documentary photographer, photojournalist and photobook collector. He is known for his photographic projects that take an intimate, satirical and anthropological look at aspects of modern life, in p ...
and
Gerry Badger
Gerald David "Gerry" Badger (born 1946) is an English writer and curator of photography, and a photographer.
In 2018 he received the J Dudley Johnston Award from the Royal Photographic Society.
Life and career
Badger was born in 1946 in Northam ...
say that the "incessant focus
f ''Tulsa'' and Clark's 1983 book ''Teenage Lust'' on the sleazy aspect of the lives portrayed, to the exclusion of almost anything else — whether photographed from the 'inside' or not — raises concerns about exploitation and drawing the viewer into a prurient, voyeuristic relationship with the work."
Photographic technique
Clark discusses his techniques in the book ''Darkroom'', published in 1977 by
Lustrum Press. Referring specifically to ''Tulsa'' he says: "I do a lot of burning and dodging when making a print and then use bleach. There's not a straight print in the TULSA book. when I'm photographing I always try to shoot against the light (refers to the cover image from ''Tulsa'' entitled 'Dead, 1970'). The film can't handle this and everything gets burned up, since I'm exposing for the shadows."
Exhibitions and collections
*
George Eastman House
The George Eastman Museum, also referred to as ''George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film'', the world's oldest museum dedicated to photography and one of the world's oldest film archives, opened to the public in 1949 in ...
(
Rochester, New York
Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...
) possesses a complete set of the fifty prints used to make the original book.
*The
International Center of Photography
The International Center of Photography (ICP), at 79 Essex Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, consists of a museum for photography and visual culture and a school offering an array of educational courses and programming. ...
(New York) has shown the prints, together with others not included in the book.
*The
Groninger Museum
The Groninger Museum () is an art museum in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. The museum exhibits modern and contemporary art of local, national, and international artists.
The museum opened in 1874. The current post-modernist building co ...
(
Groningen
Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...
) bought the series of prints in 1998 and exhibited them in January–April 2005.
*
Maison européenne de la photographie
The Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP; European house of photography), located in the historic heart of Paris, is a center for contemporary photographic art opened in February 1996.
Location and activities
The Hotel Henault de Cantobre, ...
(
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
) showed the series from October 2007 to January 2008.
*The
Columbia Museum of Art
The Columbia Museum of Art is an art museum in the American city of Columbia, South Carolina.
History
The Columbia Museum of Art was originally in the 1908 private residence of the city's Taylor family. Located on Senate Street in Columbia, ad ...
shows the series from October 2009 till February 2009.
*The
Whitney Museum
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude ...
holds 69 works by Clark including the cover image from ''Tulsa''.
* The
Chrysler Museum of Art
The Chrysler Museum of Art is an art museum on the border between downtown and the Ghent district of Norfolk, Virginia. The museum was founded in 1933 as the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences. In 1971, automotive heir, Walter P. Chrysler Jr. ...
owns the Tulsa series.
*The
Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University
The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum (known popularly as the Zimmerli Art Museum) is located on the Voorhees Mall of the campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The museum houses more than 60,000 works, including Russian and ...
owns the Tulsa series.
Editions
*''Tulsa.'' New York: Lustrum Press, 1971. Paperback. .
*''Tulsa.'' New York: Larry Clark,
979
Year 979 ( CMLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place Byzantine Empire
* March 24 – Second Battle of Pankaleia: An Ibero-Byzantine expeditionary ...
("1971"). Hardback.
*''Tulsa.'' 1983.
*''Tarusa'' () / ''Tulsa.'' Tokyo: Taka Ishii Gallery. 1996. Hardback. Edition of 1000. .
*''Tulsa.'' S.l.: Printed Matter, 1999. .
*''Tulsa.'' New York: Grove, 2000.
**Hardback in slipcase, with print. Edition of 250. .
**Hardback. .
**Paperback. .
Notes
References
Larry Clark: Tulsa. International Center of Photography. Accessed 24 June 2008.
Larry Clark - Tulsa 1971. Artfacts.net. Accessed 24 June 2008.
*Parr, Martin, and Gerry Badger. ''The Photobook: A History.'' Vol. 1. London: Phaidon, 2004. .
*''Photographs: George Eastman House, Rochester, NY.'' Cologne: Taschen, 1999. . (This is the title as given on the title page; the front cover and spine both read ''Photography from 1839 to Today: George Eastman House, Rochester, NY.'')
*''The Photography Book.'' London: Phaidon, 2000. . (This is the title as given on the title page; the front cover and spine both read ''The Photo Book.'')
*''Darkroom.'' Lustrum Press, Inc. 1977. .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tulsa
1971 non-fiction books
Culture of Tulsa, Oklahoma
Photojournalistic books
History of Tulsa, Oklahoma