Pictures From Home

What Makes It Great? / Featured / March 14, 2023

By Suzanne Révy

Translating a book of photographs into a Broadway play is probably not on most photographers’ radar. In an unexpected and ironic move, the staged photographs that Larry Sultan made with his parents have found their way onto a New York City stage. Pictures from Home stars Nathan Lane, Zoë Wanamaker and Danny Burstein in a production that expands on Sultan’s renowned book, first published in the early 1990’s. The play will be performed through April 30th, 2023 at Roundabout Theater Company’s Studio 54. In a satisfying complement to the play, several large-scale prints from Sultan’s project are currently on exhibit, along with a selection from the series Recreation by photographer Mitch Epstein, at the Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York City through April 8th, 2023.

Scene from the Broadway play “Pictures from Home” starring (l-r) Zoë Wanamaker, Nathan Lane and Danny Burstein at Studio 54, NYC. (Courtesy Photo)

“This project will become one of my hallmark achievements!” declares actor Danny Burstein at the opening of the play. He stars as photographer Larry Sultan (1946-2009) who was known for his conceptual works and collaborations in the 1970’s while teaching at the prestigious California College of the Arts. And in fact, his most enduring work is the emotionally poignant Pictures from Home. It was published in a 1992 book that featured photographs, snapshots, super-8 home movie stills and lengthy interviews culled from tape recorded conversations between Sultan and his parents, Irving and Jean. The play, written by Sharr White and directed by Bartlett Sher, adds a new twist to Sultan’s potent memoir.

The set for “Pictures From Home” at Studio 54 in NYC, photograph by Suzanne Révy.

The spare set resembles a mid-century modern aesthetic, enveloped in the green palette of the elder Sultans’ San Fernando Valley home. Several of Larry Sultan’s photographs are projected onto a large wall at the back of the stage throughout the play. The actors banter with each other and with the audience, raising questions about truth in storytelling and the mythologizing of the American family that motivated Sultan to start the project. His parents are willing participants, but grow impatient with the length of time it takes and the frequency of their son’s visits. In one scene, as Larry sets up a studio light while his father changes into a suit and tie to pose, they argue about the meaning of success. Or the “image” of success. The play mines many of the themes that Sultan was grappling with as he made the pictures over a ten year period in the 1980’s.

A scene from “Pictures From Home” with Nathan Lane as Irving Sultan and Danny Burstein as photographer Larry Sultan. (Courtesy Photo)

It is clear that the Sultan family narrative parallels that of many Americans: a move west from New York in the late 50’s; the generational shifts from World War II to the baby boom, when largely absent fathers “knew” best; the overt anti-semitism in business that the elder Sultan encountered; and the constricting roles of men and women within the family. The play touches on several of these points with humor and pathos. Regrettably, it gives Sultan’s mother somewhat short shrift, though the actress, who nails the look, delivers a moving soliloquy that reveals a profound love for her son. In a later scene between mother and son, he proclaims that he wants them both to live “forever.” She retorts, “I’m not in any hurry, but I do not want to live forever.” But in a sense, the couple still lives on in Sultan’s pictures and on this stage.

“Practicing Golf Swing” by Larry Sultan, 1987 from the series Pictures from Home, archival pigment print, courtesy of the Yancey Richardson Gallery, NYC.

The projected photographs at the back of the set function almost as another character. We see some of the early home movies, and family snaps that Irving took with big smiles. But they linger on a portrait of Irving, resting shirtless on the couch with his eyes closed. It touches on the transactional nature of portraiture and tension that can arise between the muse and the maker. Whose voice do we see? How much of the photographer is reflected in his subjects? The elder Sultan frequently stated in the book that he is happier than he appears in the pictures. And he was frustrated with his “awful” golf swing in one of Sultan’s more famous images. But the projected pictures were cropped, and two of my favorites of his mother Jean, one of her wearing a nightgown standing in a doorway, and the other of her posing while Irving watches television were absent. Fans of Sultan’s photographs, however, will recognize the outfit the actress wears in the final scene of the play from that picture.

“My Mother Posing” by Larry Sultan, 1984, from the series Pictures from Home, archival pigment print, courtesy of the Yancey Richardson Gallery, NYC.

Fortunately, a selection of large prints from Pictures from Home by Larry Sultan are on view at the Yancey Richardson Gallery. I have always been enamored of the elder Sultan’s feet on the floor in “Dad on Bed.” It was included in the play, but we could not see the bottom half of it. Seeing a large print of it in person the next day made me realize that the play, as entertaining as it was, lacked the more subtle and sophisticated nuances found in Sultan’s photographs. Of course, a play by its very nature moves through time, where photographs arrest it. The subtle pops of red in “Dad on Bed,” the diffused light, the shimmer of the wall paper, and the carefully made bed offer an enigmatic correspondence between the viewer, the sitter and the photographer. That three part relationship is mirrored in the play, but my experience was enriched by being able to quietly study minute details in Sultan’s pictures. The play might have benefitted from some calm by employing the more deliberate pacing of Sultan’s well-sequenced book.

“Dad on Bed” by Larry Sultan, 1984, from the series Pictures from Home, archival pigment print, courtesy of the Yancey Richardson Gallery, NYC.

“Los Angeles, Early Evening” by Larry Sultan, 1986 from the series Pictures from Home, courtesy of the Yancey Richardson Gallery, NYC.

The exhibit also features several works that the play did not touch on, including the atmospheric “Los Angeles, Early Evening” with its mix of natural, neon and tungsten light and the iconic “My Mother Posing.” Unlike a book or a performance, these large scale prints invite viewers into the physical and psychological spaces inhabited by the Sultans. They are an immersive reminder that visual arts are as emotionally satisfying as performance; they encourage interpretation and prompt a deeper understanding of our own stories through myriad unspoken connections.

“Coco Beach, Florida I” by Mitch Epstein, 1983 from the series Recreation, chromogenic print, courtesy of the artist and the Yancey Richardson Gallery, NYC.

Also on view is Mitch Epstein’s Recreation. In contrast to Sultan, Epstein’s pictures are candid but are equally theatrical, elevated by his early embrace of color. Epstein photographed Americans at play in the 1970’s and 80’s. There are tangled crowds and crotch grabbers on a beach in Queens, tourists viewing the scenery at a national park through binoculars and campers basking the the golden rays of the late afternoon sun in Florida. These pictures were made at a time when Americans truly disconnected from their day-to-day lives when on vacation. The pictures are filled with wit, humor and the sheer pleasure of being at play. Epstein notes that during the pre-digital era, we were less inhibited and worried over looking good for ever-present cameras. This is readily apparent in the inebriated parties and the joys of physical abandonment in these pictures.

“Jacob Riis Park, Queens, NYC” by Mitch Epstein, 1974, from the series Recreation, chromogenic print, courtesy of the artist and the Yancey Richardson Gallery, NYC.

“Glacier National Park, Montana” by Mitch Epstein, 1988, from the series Recreation, chromogenic print, courtesy of the artist and the Yancey Richardson Gallery, NYC.

For more information about the play, and to purchase tickets:
https://picturesfromhomebroadway.com

For more information about the exhibitions at Yancey Richardson Gallery:
https://www.yanceyrichardson.com