Untitled Home Movie Still

This photograph of the artist’s mother as she squints against the bright sun evokes amateur family vacation photos. The ambivalence of her expression points to the ambiguity of such snapshots—can they really capture the truth of a moment? The photograph is part of a larger series titled Pictures from Home, in which Larry Sultan explores differ-ent versions of family truth. In this project, Sultan focused on his parents in the post-corporate, retirement phase of their lives, capturing the allure and the letdown of the American dream.