{"id":1801804,"date":"2026-03-02T12:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T09:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1801804"},"modified":"2026-03-02T12:05:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T09:05:00","slug":"life-lessons-from-the-legendary-photographer-larry-sultan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1801804","title":{"rendered":"Life lessons from the legendary photographer Larry Sultan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1200\/0-147-1574-1049\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439436.jpg&#8221;]<\/p>\n<article class=\"main-article standard \">\n<div class=\"article-main-content article-wrapper has-media-but-its-an-image\" data-status=\"loaded\" data-primary-article=\"true\" data-url=\"\/art-photography\/article\/69777\/1\/larry-sultan-water-over-thunder-selected-writings-life-lessons-mack-photo-book\" data-article-id=\"69777\">\n<header class=\"article-header has-landscape-image no-media\">\n<div class=\"wrapper dg-max-width\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<figure class=\"main-img has-figcaption\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.23\" data-template=\"Standard Article\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Larry Sultan, Water Over Thunder: Selected Writings \" class=\"img\" height=\"1277\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1400\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439436.jpg\" width=\"1575\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"inner\"><span class=\"credit\">From Water Over Thunder: Selected Writings (MACK, 2026). \u00a9 The Estate of Larry Sultan. Courtesy <span class=\"nowrap\">of MACK<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"meta\">\n<div class=\"inner\"><time datetime=\"2026-03-02T12:05:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"02 March 2026\"><span class=\"month\">March<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"2\">2,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div class=\"titles\">\n<div class=\"tags\">\n<div class=\"sections\"><a class=\"category vertical - art-photography\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\">Art &amp; Photography<\/a><br \/>\n\/<br \/>\n<a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-lessons\">Life Lessons<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"standard-tag-container\"><a class=\"standard-category\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\">Art &amp; Photography<\/a> \/<br \/>\n<a class=\"standard-series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-lessons\">Life Lessons<\/a><\/div>\n<h1 class=\"title\"><span>Life lessons from the legendary photographer <span class=\"nowrap\">Larry Sultan<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n<div class=\"standfirst\">\n<h2>Water Over Thunder brings together the selected writings of the great Larry Sultan as he reflects on image-making and his \u2018impossible\u2019 drive to \u2018transmit the feeling of a life <span class=\"nowrap\">being lived\u2019<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-03-02T12:05:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"02 March 2026\"><span class=\"month\">March<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"2\">2,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-03-02T12:05:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"02 March 2026\"><span class=\"month\">March<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"2\">2,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/p>\n<div class=\"providers\">\n<div class=\"contributors\"><span class=\"contributor\" data-contributor-role=\"Text\"><span class=\"contributor-role\">Text<\/span><a class=\"contributor-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/user\/ZaraAfthab\">Zara Afthab<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article-body-container\">\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"dazed-gallery has-6-images \">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<header>\n<div class=\"info\"><span class=\"heading\">Larry Sultan, Water Over Thunder: <span class=\"nowrap\">Selected Writings<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"gallery\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumbs\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36763\/0\/larry-sultan-water-over-thunder-selected-writings\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Larry Sultan, Water Over Thunder: Selected Writings \" class=\"img\" height=\"1050\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-0-1575-1050\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439432.jpg\" width=\"1575\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36763\/1\/larry-sultan-water-over-thunder-selected-writings\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Larry Sultan, Water Over Thunder: Selected Writings \" class=\"img\" height=\"1050\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-0-1575-1050\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439433.jpg\" width=\"1575\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36763\/2\/larry-sultan-water-over-thunder-selected-writings\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Larry Sultan, Water Over Thunder: Selected Writings \" class=\"img\" height=\"1050\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-432-1575-1050\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439434.jpg\" width=\"1575\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36763\/3\/larry-sultan-water-over-thunder-selected-writings\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Larry Sultan, Water Over Thunder: Selected Writings \" class=\"img\" height=\"1050\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-0-1575-1050\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439435.jpg\" width=\"1575\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36763\/4\/larry-sultan-water-over-thunder-selected-writings\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Larry Sultan, Water Over Thunder: Selected Writings \" class=\"img\" height=\"1049\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-147-1574-1049\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439436.jpg\" width=\"1574\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36763\/5\/larry-sultan-water-over-thunder-selected-writings\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Larry Sultan, Water Over Thunder: Selected Writings \" class=\"img\" height=\"1049\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-143-1574-1049\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439437.jpg\" width=\"1574\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-footer\">Gallery \/ 6 images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>In the last few pages of Larry Sultan\u2019s posthumously published book <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mackbooks.co.uk\/products\/water-over-thunder-selected-writings-larry-sultan?srsltid=AfmBOorHVtLTHV5CX1yDt1QlstFlFa0Ip_BB9UuJfm7MKyBvwKBVR1JO\"><em><span>Water Over Thunder: Select Writings<\/span><\/em><\/a><span>, an excerpt from his archive reveals how the celebrated photographer harboured a desire to be a writer. \u201cI\u2019ve actually thought about stopping photographing for a while and just writing,\u201d he confides in a notebook. \u201cMaybe that would get closer to the bone.\u201d Through this new book, which traces his practice and focuses on his symbiotic use of word and image, Sultan perhaps achieved this goal of getting as close to the bone as one could. Published by MACK and assembled by Kelly Sultan, his widow and manager of the Larry Sultan Estate, and his son, Maxwell Sultan, <\/span><em><span>Water Over Thunder<\/span><\/em><span> collates facsimiles of journal entries, lists from notebooks, family photographs, transcripts of class lectures, contact sheets, postcards and other ephemera.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The Brooklyn-born, California-raised photographer\u2019s projects, including books such as<\/span><em><span>Evidence, <\/span><\/em><span>made in collaboration with Mike Mandel, and<\/span><em><span> Pictures from Home, <\/span><\/em><span>investigate the cracks in suburban life and are foundational to studies of 20th-century American photography. But what makes this new book unique, besides the previously unpublished visual archive, is Sultan\u2019s writing, which is nuanced and precise. He is attentive to both the expansiveness and limitations of making images, writing in one instance that \u201ctaking pictures is a way of thinking\u201d and, in another, expressing his disinterest in creating images that have a straightforward narrative or are purely illustrative.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Sultan\u2019s writing ranges in form \u2013 journal entries, lists, typed-out transcripts, and photoshoot notes \u2013 and also in content, moving from biographical anecdotes to theoretical citations of Carl Jung and Roland Barthes. To celebrate the publication of <em>Water Over Thunder<\/em>, we take a look at the artist&#8217;s life, work and approach to photography through his own words.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"59f09e7a-bd5d-4b34-b045-b3fe01261c13\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1575\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439435.jpg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.22\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Larry Sultan, Water Over Thunder: Selected Writings \" class=\"img\" height=\"1294\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/786\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439435.jpg\" width=\"1575\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Larry Sultan, Pictures <span class=\"nowrap\">from Home,1983-92<\/span><\/span><span class=\"credit\">From Water Over Thunder: Selected Writings (MACK, 2026). \u00a9 The Estate of Larry Sultan. Courtesy <span class=\"nowrap\">of MACK<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<h1><strong>\u201cPhotography was a natural outgrowth of just being abstracted; to endlessly looking at the world\u201d<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p><span>In the first section of the book, titled <em>Sunset Strip<\/em>, Sultan recounts his biography, stating how he became a photographer because nothing else held any meaning to him. He shares how he found a profession that suited his personality, one that was always deeply observant and keenly interested in the mundane. He writes of his childhood, when he was the \u201ckind of kid who used to stand there with his mouth open and stare at things\u201d. Despite being born in Brooklyn, Sultan is only faintly familiar with that time in his life, feeling a greater kinship with Southern California. It was when he moved to the Bay Area in 1970 that the streets began to interest him deeply, allowing him to \u201cparticipate in a way that felt right\u201d through photography, despite feeling like he didn\u2019t necessarily fit in. This sense of alienation was also documented in the photographer\u2019s military service psychiatric report from 1969, which forms part of the visual archive of the book, where the doctor shares how Sultan refers to himself as a \u201cleft-out observer looking inside\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><strong>\u201cWhat moved me to be a photographer was that one could make images [&#8230;] that were populist, that dealt with daily life, that dealt with our times\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p><span>Sultan recalls being \u201cbored to tears\u201d by the romanticism surrounding the photographic traditions of San Francisco and the Beat Generation. He writes, \u201cI didn\u2019t understand the language of academic critique, and I didn\u2019t feel comfortable sitting in caf\u00e9 culture. I was interested in Bob\u2019s Big Boy combo plates with Thousand Island dressing and French fries.\u201d The photographer, one could easily discern, was endlessly fascinated by popular culture and what constituted normalcy. He notes that his access to visual culture was not through art museums but through billboards on the Sunset Strip. The early realisation that advertising is a legitimate form of image-making led to a long-term collaborative public art project with Mike Mandel, in which the artists created open-ended designs for billboards in the San Francisco area. Mandel, who shared a disdain for bohemian traditions, wanted this art to reach a public that would rarely find themselves in a traditional art setting. Referencing one of the duo\u2019s first billboards, <\/span><em><span>Oranges on Fire<\/span><\/em><span>, Sultan explains in his writing how \u201cby recognising and working within the structure of the language of advertising\u201d, they were able to subvert the communication strategy of an advertisement to shock, subvert and share their own message.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"cc133eab-1ba3-4754-bca0-b3fe012613e1\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1575\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439433.jpg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.48\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Larry Sultan, Water Over Thunder: Selected Writings \" class=\"img\" height=\"1061\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/786\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439433.jpg\" width=\"1575\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Larry Sultan, Untitled <span class=\"nowrap\">#1, 1978\u2013198<\/span><\/span><span class=\"credit\">From Water Over Thunder: Selected Writings (MACK, 2026). \u00a9 The Estate of Larry Sultan. Courtesy <span class=\"nowrap\">of MACK<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<h1><strong>\u201cI felt that family was one of the most complicated, unnerving institutions. Yet it is the institution most of us believe in\u201d<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p><span>It was during the Reagan era \u2013 when suburban bliss, white picket fences, and the perfect family were highly sought after in America \u2013 that Sultan created his most recognisable works, <\/span><em><span>Pictures From Home <\/span><\/em>and<em><span> Home Movie Stills. <\/span><\/em><span>These projects were attentive to the American dream, examining its cracks and its optimistic promises. In a 1990 interview with the artist for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bombmagazine.org\/articles\/1990\/04\/01\/larry-sultan\/\"><span><em>Bomb Magazine<\/em>,<\/span><\/a><span> the cultural critic Catherine Liu referred to these pictures as \u201cdiscovering what being American is about\u201d. Sultan\u2019s own interest in home movies and staging family photographs stemmed from curiosity about why the family as an institution survives even as the government, the church, and the bank failed. <\/span><em><span>Pictures From Home <\/span><\/em><span>was created over several visits to his parents\u2019 brightly coloured retirement home in Palm Springs. <\/span><em><span>Home Movie Stills is <\/span><\/em><span>a deep dive into his father\u2019s old 8mm films, where the artist would take them out of context and create new configurations of the footage. He reminisces about noticing details in these stills that he hadn\u2019t noticed before or would have considered insignificant, such as a redwood fence or a t-shirt his older brother wore, which \u201cstirred up an atmosphere of the past\u201d and allowed the artist to time-travel and insert himself into his childhood. He described this feeling as akin to coming home.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><strong>\u201cWhat I really wanted to do was the impossible \u2013 to transmit the feeling of a life being lived\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p><span>As Sultan\u2019s writing and practice progress throughout the book, he becomes more outwardly sentimental in his approach to photography. His words similarly take a turn for the emotional. Referring to photographing his parents in <\/span><em><span>Pictures From Home<\/span><\/em><span>, he wrote, \u201cThat\u2019s the heart of it. Behind all the peering and the good pictures, and the anxiety of my \u2018project&#8217;, is the futile wish to take photography literally. To stop time. I want them to live forever.\u201c This writing is accompanied by contact sheets and notebook scans, where he sketched out the project and finished photographs. In one scan from a notebook, he writes, \u201cHow can you photograph or feel the story of another without reducing it to a case study?\u201d This responsibility, which he felt to represent his parents properly, was a source of anxiety for the photographer and is referenced a few times throughout the text. To rectify this, Sultan spent nine years interviewing his parents to tell their story and had them participate in the project. He shares, \u201cThey wrote, we discussed the pictures, they dismantled my position, I was under question.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mackbooks.co.uk\/products\/water-over-thunder-selected-writings-larry-sultan\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/mackbooks.co.uk\/products\/water-over-thunder-selected-writings-larry-sultan&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1772300791959000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2ATWRosOTGepzFxDODAPCI\">Water Over Thunder: Selected Writings<\/a><em>by Larry Sultan is published by MACK and is available <a href=\"https:\/\/mackbooks.co.uk\/products\/water-over-thunder-selected-writings-larry-sultan?srsltid=AfmBOorHVtLTHV5CX1yDt1QlstFlFa0Ip_BB9UuJfm7MKyBvwKBVR1JO\">here<\/a> now.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline-last\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! 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Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. You have been subscribed<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"dazed-gallery has-6-images \">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<header>\n<div class=\"info\"><span class=\"heading\">Larry Sultan, Water Over Thunder: <span class=\"nowrap\">Selected Writings<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"gallery\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumbs\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36763\/0\/larry-sultan-water-over-thunder-selected-writings\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Larry Sultan, Water Over Thunder: Selected Writings \" class=\"img\" height=\"1050\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-0-1575-1050\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439432.jpg\" width=\"1575\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36763\/1\/larry-sultan-water-over-thunder-selected-writings\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Larry Sultan, Water Over Thunder: Selected Writings \" class=\"img\" height=\"1050\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-0-1575-1050\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439433.jpg\" width=\"1575\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36763\/2\/larry-sultan-water-over-thunder-selected-writings\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Larry Sultan, Water Over Thunder: Selected Writings \" class=\"img\" height=\"1050\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-432-1575-1050\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439434.jpg\" width=\"1575\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36763\/3\/larry-sultan-water-over-thunder-selected-writings\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Larry Sultan, Water Over Thunder: Selected Writings \" class=\"img\" height=\"1050\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-0-1575-1050\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439435.jpg\" width=\"1575\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36763\/4\/larry-sultan-water-over-thunder-selected-writings\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Larry Sultan, Water Over Thunder: Selected Writings \" class=\"img\" height=\"1049\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-147-1574-1049\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439436.jpg\" width=\"1574\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36763\/5\/larry-sultan-water-over-thunder-selected-writings\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Larry Sultan, Water Over Thunder: Selected Writings \" class=\"img\" height=\"1049\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-143-1574-1049\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439437.jpg\" width=\"1574\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-footer\">Gallery \/ 6 images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>In the last few pages of Larry Sultan\u2019s posthumously published book <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mackbooks.co.uk\/products\/water-over-thunder-selected-writings-larry-sultan?srsltid=AfmBOorHVtLTHV5CX1yDt1QlstFlFa0Ip_BB9UuJfm7MKyBvwKBVR1JO\"><em><span>Water Over Thunder: Select Writings<\/span><\/em><\/a><span>, an excerpt from his archive reveals how the celebrated photographer harboured a desire to be a writer. \u201cI\u2019ve actually thought about stopping photographing for a while and just writing,\u201d he confides in a notebook. \u201cMaybe that would get closer to the bone.\u201d Through this new book, which traces his practice and focuses on his symbiotic use of word and image, Sultan perhaps achieved this goal of getting as close to the bone as one could. Published by MACK and assembled by Kelly Sultan, his widow and manager of the Larry Sultan Estate, and his son, Maxwell Sultan, <\/span><em><span>Water Over Thunder<\/span><\/em><span> collates facsimiles of journal entries, lists from notebooks, family photographs, transcripts of class lectures, contact sheets, postcards and other ephemera.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The Brooklyn-born, California-raised photographer\u2019s projects, including books such as<\/span><em><span>Evidence, <\/span><\/em><span>made in collaboration with Mike Mandel, and<\/span><em><span> Pictures from Home, <\/span><\/em><span>investigate the cracks in suburban life and are foundational to studies of 20th-century American photography. But what makes this new book unique, besides the previously unpublished visual archive, is Sultan\u2019s writing, which is nuanced and precise. He is attentive to both the expansiveness and limitations of making images, writing in one instance that \u201ctaking pictures is a way of thinking\u201d and, in another, expressing his disinterest in creating images that have a straightforward narrative or are purely illustrative.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Sultan\u2019s writing ranges in form \u2013 journal entries, lists, typed-out transcripts, and photoshoot notes \u2013 and also in content, moving from biographical anecdotes to theoretical citations of Carl Jung and Roland Barthes. To celebrate the publication of <em>Water Over Thunder<\/em>, we take a look at the artist&#8217;s life, work and approach to photography through his own words.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"59f09e7a-bd5d-4b34-b045-b3fe01261c13\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1575\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439435.jpg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.22\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Larry Sultan, Water Over Thunder: Selected Writings \" class=\"img\" height=\"1294\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/786\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439435.jpg\" width=\"1575\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Larry Sultan, Pictures <span class=\"nowrap\">from Home,1983-92<\/span><\/span><span class=\"credit\">From Water Over Thunder: Selected Writings (MACK, 2026). \u00a9 The Estate of Larry Sultan. Courtesy <span class=\"nowrap\">of MACK<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<h1><strong>\u201cPhotography was a natural outgrowth of just being abstracted; to endlessly looking at the world\u201d<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p><span>In the first section of the book, titled <em>Sunset Strip<\/em>, Sultan recounts his biography, stating how he became a photographer because nothing else held any meaning to him. He shares how he found a profession that suited his personality, one that was always deeply observant and keenly interested in the mundane. He writes of his childhood, when he was the \u201ckind of kid who used to stand there with his mouth open and stare at things\u201d. Despite being born in Brooklyn, Sultan is only faintly familiar with that time in his life, feeling a greater kinship with Southern California. It was when he moved to the Bay Area in 1970 that the streets began to interest him deeply, allowing him to \u201cparticipate in a way that felt right\u201d through photography, despite feeling like he didn\u2019t necessarily fit in. This sense of alienation was also documented in the photographer\u2019s military service psychiatric report from 1969, which forms part of the visual archive of the book, where the doctor shares how Sultan refers to himself as a \u201cleft-out observer looking inside\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><strong>\u201cWhat moved me to be a photographer was that one could make images [&#8230;] that were populist, that dealt with daily life, that dealt with our times\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p><span>Sultan recalls being \u201cbored to tears\u201d by the romanticism surrounding the photographic traditions of San Francisco and the Beat Generation. He writes, \u201cI didn\u2019t understand the language of academic critique, and I didn\u2019t feel comfortable sitting in caf\u00e9 culture. I was interested in Bob\u2019s Big Boy combo plates with Thousand Island dressing and French fries.\u201d The photographer, one could easily discern, was endlessly fascinated by popular culture and what constituted normalcy. He notes that his access to visual culture was not through art museums but through billboards on the Sunset Strip. The early realisation that advertising is a legitimate form of image-making led to a long-term collaborative public art project with Mike Mandel, in which the artists created open-ended designs for billboards in the San Francisco area. Mandel, who shared a disdain for bohemian traditions, wanted this art to reach a public that would rarely find themselves in a traditional art setting. Referencing one of the duo\u2019s first billboards, <\/span><em><span>Oranges on Fire<\/span><\/em><span>, Sultan explains in his writing how \u201cby recognising and working within the structure of the language of advertising\u201d, they were able to subvert the communication strategy of an advertisement to shock, subvert and share their own message.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"cc133eab-1ba3-4754-bca0-b3fe012613e1\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1575\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439433.jpg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.48\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Larry Sultan, Water Over Thunder: Selected Writings \" class=\"img\" height=\"1061\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/786\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439433.jpg\" width=\"1575\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Larry Sultan, Untitled <span class=\"nowrap\">#1, 1978\u2013198<\/span><\/span><span class=\"credit\">From Water Over Thunder: Selected Writings (MACK, 2026). \u00a9 The Estate of Larry Sultan. Courtesy <span class=\"nowrap\">of MACK<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<h1><strong>\u201cI felt that family was one of the most complicated, unnerving institutions. Yet it is the institution most of us believe in\u201d<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p><span>It was during the Reagan era \u2013 when suburban bliss, white picket fences, and the perfect family were highly sought after in America \u2013 that Sultan created his most recognisable works, <\/span><em><span>Pictures From Home <\/span><\/em>and<em><span> Home Movie Stills. <\/span><\/em><span>These projects were attentive to the American dream, examining its cracks and its optimistic promises. In a 1990 interview with the artist for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bombmagazine.org\/articles\/1990\/04\/01\/larry-sultan\/\"><span><em>Bomb Magazine<\/em>,<\/span><\/a><span> the cultural critic Catherine Liu referred to these pictures as \u201cdiscovering what being American is about\u201d. Sultan\u2019s own interest in home movies and staging family photographs stemmed from curiosity about why the family as an institution survives even as the government, the church, and the bank failed. <\/span><em><span>Pictures From Home <\/span><\/em><span>was created over several visits to his parents\u2019 brightly coloured retirement home in Palm Springs. <\/span><em><span>Home Movie Stills is <\/span><\/em><span>a deep dive into his father\u2019s old 8mm films, where the artist would take them out of context and create new configurations of the footage. He reminisces about noticing details in these stills that he hadn\u2019t noticed before or would have considered insignificant, such as a redwood fence or a t-shirt his older brother wore, which \u201cstirred up an atmosphere of the past\u201d and allowed the artist to time-travel and insert himself into his childhood. He described this feeling as akin to coming home.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><strong>\u201cWhat I really wanted to do was the impossible \u2013 to transmit the feeling of a life being lived\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p><span>As Sultan\u2019s writing and practice progress throughout the book, he becomes more outwardly sentimental in his approach to photography. His words similarly take a turn for the emotional. Referring to photographing his parents in <\/span><em><span>Pictures From Home<\/span><\/em><span>, he wrote, \u201cThat\u2019s the heart of it. Behind all the peering and the good pictures, and the anxiety of my \u2018project&#8217;, is the futile wish to take photography literally. To stop time. I want them to live forever.\u201c This writing is accompanied by contact sheets and notebook scans, where he sketched out the project and finished photographs. In one scan from a notebook, he writes, \u201cHow can you photograph or feel the story of another without reducing it to a case study?\u201d This responsibility, which he felt to represent his parents properly, was a source of anxiety for the photographer and is referenced a few times throughout the text. To rectify this, Sultan spent nine years interviewing his parents to tell their story and had them participate in the project. He shares, \u201cThey wrote, we discussed the pictures, they dismantled my position, I was under question.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mackbooks.co.uk\/products\/water-over-thunder-selected-writings-larry-sultan\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/mackbooks.co.uk\/products\/water-over-thunder-selected-writings-larry-sultan&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1772300791959000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2ATWRosOTGepzFxDODAPCI\">Water Over Thunder: Selected Writings<\/a><em>by Larry Sultan is published by MACK and is available <a href=\"https:\/\/mackbooks.co.uk\/products\/water-over-thunder-selected-writings-larry-sultan?srsltid=AfmBOorHVtLTHV5CX1yDt1QlstFlFa0Ip_BB9UuJfm7MKyBvwKBVR1JO\">here<\/a> now.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline-last\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. You have been subscribed<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/article\/69777\/1\/larry-sultan-water-over-thunder-selected-writings-life-lessons-mack-photo-book&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1200\/0-147-1574-1049\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439436.jpg&#8221;] From Water Over Thunder: Selected Writings (MACK, 2026). \u00a9 The Estate of Larry Sultan. Courtesy of MACK March\u00a0 2,\u00a0 2026 Art &amp; Photography \/ Life Lessons Art &amp; Photography \/ Life Lessons Life lessons from the legendary photographer Larry Sultan Water Over Thunder brings together the selected writings of the great Larry [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,76],"class_list":["post-1801804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-dazeddigital-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1801804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1801804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1801804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1801804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}