Marble
University of Notre Dame
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Untitled from Tulsa

Date

1971

Creator

Larry Clark

Location

Raclin Murphy Museum of Art

The teenage Larry Clark was disgusted by the social hypocrisy he saw around him, and like many adolescents, he reacted with self-destructive behavior. He had learned the techniques of photography from his mother, a door-to-door children’s portraitist, and always carried a camera. It was there when he and his friends started injecting amphetamines in 1959. They were sexually active, scuffled aggressively, and played with handguns, and Clark recorded their antics. He was drafted during the Vietnam War, and it was not until 1971 that some of his teen photographs were published in the portfolio Tulsa. This image documents one of his friends injecting herself even though she is heavily pregnant. She gazes at the syringe, the center of the composition, emphasizing her willful participation. The bright rectangular window emphasizes, by contrast, the rounded, organic contours of the woman’s body and the fertility that she violates. Clark realized that, for all the secrecy surrounding them, these activities were not unusual. from Touchstones of the Twentieth Century: A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame (exhibition, 2020-21)

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The teenage Larry Clark was disgusted by the social hypocrisy he saw around him, and like many adolescents, he reacted with self-destructive behavior. He had learned the techniques of photography from his mother, a door-to-door children’s portraitist, and always carried a camera. It was there when he and his friends started injecting amphetamines in 1959. They were sexually active, scuffled aggressively, and played with handguns, and Clark recorded their antics. He was drafted during the Vietnam War, and it was not until 1971 that some of his teen photographs were published in the portfolio Tulsa. This image documents one of his friends injecting herself even though she is heavily pregnant. She gazes at the syringe, the center of the composition, emphasizing her willful participation. The bright rectangular window emphasizes, by contrast, the rounded, organic contours of the woman’s body and the fertility that she violates. Clark realized that, for all the secrecy surrounding them, these activities were not unusual. from Touchstones of the Twentieth Century: A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame (exhibition, 2020-21)
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  • The teenage Larry Clark was disgusted by the social hypocrisy he saw around him, and like many adolescents, he reacted with self-destructive behavior. He had learned the techniques of photography from his mother, a door-to-door children’s portraitist, and always carried a camera. It was there when he and his friends started injecting amphetamines in 1959. They were sexually active, scuffled aggressively, and played with handguns, and Clark recorded their antics. He was drafted during the Vietnam War, and it was not until 1971 that some of his teen photographs were published in the portfolio Tulsa. This image documents one of his friends injecting herself even though she is heavily pregnant. She gazes at the syringe, the center of the composition, emphasizing her willful participation. The bright rectangular window emphasizes, by contrast, the rounded, organic contours of the woman’s body and the fertility that she violates. Clark realized that, for all the secrecy surrounding them, these activities were not unusual. from Touchstones of the Twentieth Century: A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame (exhibition, 2020-21)
  • The teenage Larry Clark was disgusted by the social hypocrisy he saw around him, and like many adolescents, he reacted with self-destructive behavior. He had learned the techniques of photography from his mother, a door-to-door children’s portraitist, and always carried a camera. It was there when he and his friends started injecting amphetamines in 1959. They were sexually active, scuffled aggressively, and played with handguns, and Clark recorded their antics. He was drafted during the Vietnam War, and it was not until 1971 that some of his teen photographs were published in the portfolio Tulsa. This image documents one of his friends injecting herself even though she is heavily pregnant. She gazes at the syringe, the center of the composition, emphasizing her willful participation. The bright rectangular window emphasizes, by contrast, the rounded, organic contours of the woman’s body and the fertility that she violates. Clark realized that, for all the secrecy surrounding them, these activities were not unusual. from Touchstones of the Twentieth Century: A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame (exhibition, 2020-21)
Larry Clark (American, 1943)
1971
Photographs
Gelatin silver print
1981.080.001.030
adolescents
drug addiction
needles
pregnancy
windows
© Larry Clark; Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York
Not on view, please request access
11 x 14 in. (27.9 x 35.5 cm)
Gift of Mr. Walter H. Lake Jr

Our collection information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. If you have spotted an error, please contact Raclin Murphy Museum of Art at RMMACollections@nd.edu.