Abstract
Released in 1971, Tulsa, American artist Larry Clark's career-launching first photobook, is today remembered as marking a watershed moment in American photography. This paper travels back to the era that Tulsa was first published to examine the book's initial critical reception and significance within that specific cultural and artistic climate. It presents an abbreviated overview of Tulsa's gradual creation; illustrates the ways in which the book was both similar to and different from other commonly cited contemporaneous works; and surveys its evolving status and reputation throughout the 1970s and into the early 1980s, when its second edition was published. This paper ultimately argues that Tulsa's critical success and current iconic cultural status was neither as immediate nor as consistent as previous accounts have led us to believe, but was instead the result of both Clark's unrelenting perseverance and the exciting time period in which it came of age.
Highlights
American artist Lawrence “Larry” Donald Clark’s (b. 1943) first photobook, Tulsa, is widely regarded as the work that launched his lauded career
Released in 1971, Tulsa, American artist Larry Clark’s career-‐launching first photobook, is today remembered as marking a watershed moment in American photography
My interest in Tulsa began with the back cover of the 2000 Grove Press edition of the book, which featured a reproduction of an article originally written in October 1971 by Dick Cheverton entitled “A Devastating Portrait of an American Tragedy.”1 Upon seeing this article, I was first struck by the visceral response Cheverton had to a book that I, as a young viewer, did not immediately find shocking or affecting
Summary
American artist Lawrence “Larry” Donald Clark’s (b. 1943) first photobook, Tulsa, is widely regarded as the work that launched his lauded career. As a result of the acclaim, Mr Clark lectured and exhibited widely.” Mary Warner Marien, in her widely read history of photography survey, Photography: A Cultural History, merely asserted that Tulsa “provoked negative reactions.” This simplified story continues on through 2011, when Sebastien Gokalp, writing in Kiss the Past Hello, framed Tulsa as a “bombshell” of early 1970s photography.13 It seems, that many writers find it necessary to briefly frame and introduce Tulsa within the time of its release and mention how contemporary audiences first received it, there appears to be little consensus as to what these audiences thought of the book. The paper’s conclusion section will summarize the previous chapters and give a final summary of Tulsa’s early history
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