Larry Sultan

Bay Area photographer Larry Sultan’s The Valley series focuses on the San Fernando Valley, where he grew up, and addresses the use of ordinary homes as sets for pornographic films. In Sultan’s large-scale color photographs, mundane objects — a roll of paper towels, a stack of dirty dishes — take on new weight, and suburban life becomes a symbolically charged backdrop. The project investigates the meaning of home and asks why the ideal of middle-class domesticity lends itself to this most curious form of cultural appropriation.

Larry Sultan: The Valley is generously sponsored by Viola McCusker, 2004 Carole and Robert McNeil Volunteer.

Please note: This exhibition contains explicit images that may not be appropriate for all viewers. SFMOMA recommends that adults preview the exhibition before sharing it with children.