Larry Clark is one of the most important photographers of the last 50 years. His seminal photographs in Teenage Lust and Tulsa as well as his films such as KIDS, Ken Park, Marfa Girl, and Wassup Rockers have influenced generations of photographers and filmmakers. We are excited to release his Beautiful Losers photograph at a very special price. Clark's prints sell for thousands of dollars and up. We are offering this important work for a fraction of that.
The back story to this piece is very compelling and one we did not know until about a year ago. Originally taken in 1996 (and published by us in 2007), the subject in the photo is Lyle Dean "Shorty" Easky (1980 - 2013). About a year ago, we were contacted by a neighborhood friend of Shortys, @henrystarr8 who told us this story. Shorty's family is of Native American descent. Shorty was murdered in his home in 2013 in Oklahoma City, but he grew up in Tulsa, Larry Clark's hometown. The murder remains unsolved. The neighborhood where Shorty and Henry grew up is the same neighborhood where Clark's wildly influential Tulsa photographs were taken. It is also the same neighborhood where the Coppola film The Outsiders was filmed, and is also Larry Clark's boyhood neighborhood.
Clark's parents owned a photography studio in downtown Tulsa. Larry's mother would give him flyers to hand out around the neighborhood promoting the studio. Larry would go around the area handing out flyers, but also discovering all the crazy things going on around the neighborhood: people shooting speed, having sex, and according to Henry "just being wild". Larry and Henry's father Stevie were good friends and this photo of Shorty was taken at Henry and Stevie's house. Henry said that Larry wanted to capture the next generation of people from the neighborhood as a sort of bookend to his original Tulsa photos. Henry's father Stevie is in the Tulsa book. And Clark's photos of Henry have appeared in various Clark exhibitions.
If you scroll through the images, the second image is Clark's signature and date on the back (verso). The third image (man on right) is Stevie Starr in the Tulsa book. The fourth and fifth image is of Henry Starr. Henry's photos were taken 20 years ago and were recently exhibited at Clark's Public Access show in New York. The sixth image is of Henry and Stevie Starr outside The Outsiders house. And the final image is of Larry Clark and Stevie Starr shortly before Stevie's passing.
Larry Clark
Untitled (Shorty), 1996/2007
Photograph on Anjelica watercolor paper
20 x 13.75 inches
Signed and numbered by the artist
Edition of 200
*Signed and dated on verso
Published on the occasion of the exhibition "Beautiful Losers: Contemporary Art and Street Culture", 2004-2009
Provenance:
Iconoclast Editions
Beautiful Losers Archive
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