Youth, Adolescence, and Old Age

Larry Clark

Untitled, from "Tulsa" series, 1980

AC 1994.4.2

Like usual, last night’s discussion was inspired by Mead photographs but unlike the others, it was focused on your submissions. Three photographs from the Mead’s collection were featured: Wendy Ewald’s A group of the neighbor children standing in the street - René Jansen Van Vuuren, 1992, Larry Clark’s Untitled from the Tulsa portfolio, 1980, and Mary Ellen Mark’s Man in Suit on Beach, Miami, 10/1986, 1986, which inspired our theme of age. On display beside these were six submissions, two focused on youth, two on adolescence, one on old age, and one on death.

Alex, Thea, Perry, and Alice grouped the submissions together with the Mead photos into groupings of youth, adolescence, and old age and death. These groupings elicited discussion on concepts commonly associated with the different ages. For instance, we wondered why, even though they all featured solitary figures, we used words like “freedom”, “nonchalance”, and “rebellion” when describing adolescents in the photos but words like “isolated” when describing the older people. And we wondered why the photograph of a tombstone was associated with the photographs of older people, even though the tombstone marked the grave of a two year old.

How do you think photographs can or do reinforce or subvert these common associations?

I'd also be interested to hear your thoughts on other questions relating to photographs representing age:

How do the subjects in the photographs “act” or represent their age? How do we recognize and how do we discuss age? Do you think family photos differ significantly from fine art photos in how they describe age?

 

Thank you so much to everyone who participated in last night's event, either by submitting your excellent photographs or by joining in the conversation!