Film Still from the Sultan Family Home Movies
Larry Sultan
American, 1946–2009
1943-72
A chromogenic color print made from a frame of an amateur home movie showing a man running as a bear follows, which Sultan appropriated to probe how private films stage anxiety, performance, and memory.
The shaky, soft-focus freeze-frame—with faded blues and greens, awkward cropping, and the uncanny juxtaposition of a casual man mid-stride and a lumbering bear—makes an everyday scene feel both comic and menacing.
By elevating vernacular home‑movie stills into the gallery, Sultan helped push photography toward a critical exploration of found footage, family mythmaking, and the theatrical construction of everyday life.
Medium
Chromogenic print, printed 1985
Dimensions
16 1/2 × 21 1/4" (42 × 54 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Lewis Baltz
Accession
1283.2001.26
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
