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Larry Clark
Larry Clark Deauville 2013.jpg
Larry Clark in 2013 at the Deauville American Film Festival
Born
Lawrence Donald Clark

(1943-01-19) January 19, 1943 (age 81)
Years active 1962–present
Children 3

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).

Early life

Clark was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He learned photography at an early age. His mother was an itinerant baby photographer, and he was enlisted in the family business from the age of 13. His father was a traveling sales manager for the Reader Service Bureau, selling books and magazines door-to-door, and was rarely home.

Clark attended the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he studied under Walter Sheffer and Gerhard Bakker.

Career

In 1964, he moved to New York City to freelance, but was drafted within two months into the United States Army. From 1964 to 1965, he served in the Vietnam War in a unit that supplied ammunition to units fighting in the north. His experiences there led him to publish the 1971 book Tulsa.

Clark constructed a photographic essay titled "The Perfect Childhood" that examined the effect of media in youth culture. His photographs are part of public collections at several art museums including the Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Photographic Arts, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

In 1993, Clark directed Chris Isaak's music video "Solitary Man". This experience developed into an interest in film direction. After publishing other photographic collections, Clark met Harmony Korine in New York City and asked Korine to write the screenplay for his first feature film Kids, which was released to controversy and mixed critical reception in 1995. Clark continued directing, filming a handful of additional independent feature films in the several years after this.

In 2001, Clark shot three features — Bully, Ken Park and Teenage Caveman — over a span of nine months. As of 2017, they are his last films to feature professional actors.

Films

Directors such as Gus Van Sant and Martin Scorsese have stated that they were influenced by Clark's early photography, according to Peter Biskind's book Down and Dirty Pictures.

Roger Ebert was a fan of his work, giving positive reviews to Kids, Another Day in Paradise, Bully, and Wassup Rockers.

Kids

His most widely known film. The film received an NC-17 rating, and was later released without a rating when Disney bought Miramax.

Other work

In 2015, Clark collaborated alongside notable skateboard and clothing brand, Supreme, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Kids with a collection of decks, T-shirts, and sweatshirts that feature stills from the iconic film. The collection was released on May 21, 2015, in Supreme's New York, Los Angeles, and London locations and on May 23 in its Japan location.

Clark has won the top prizes at the Cognac Festival du Film Policier (for Another Day in Paradise), the Stockholm Film Festival (for Bully) and the Rome Film Festival (for Marfa Girl). He has also competed for the Golden Palm (Kids) and Golden Lion (Bully).

Filmography

  • Kids (1995)
  • Another Day in Paradise (1998)
  • Bully (2001)
  • Teenage Caveman (2002, television film)
  • Wassup Rockers (2005)
  • Destricted (2006, segment "Impaled")
  • Marfa Girl (2012)
  • The Smell of Us (2014, French)
  • Marfa Girl 2 (2018)
  • A Day in a Life (2021, French short film co-directed with Jonathan Velasquez)

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Larry Clark para niños

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