LARRY CLARK: THE PERFECT CHILDHOOD

Zurich, Switzerland: Scalo Publishers, 1995. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. As New/As New Dust Jacket.. Zurich, Switzerland: Scalo Publishers, 1995. Hardcover. As New/As New. First Edition/First Printing. 175 pages. Retrospective collection of photographs. One of Larry Clark's most important books. The First Scalo Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now rare. A brilliant production by Larry Clark and Hans Werner Holzwarth: Oversize-volume format. Black hard boards with titles printed on spine, as issued. Photographs and photo-collages by Larry Clark. There is no text. Printed on pristine-white, thick coated stock paper in Zurich, Switzerland to the highest standards. In pictorial DJ with white titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Presents Larry Clark's "The Perfect Childhood". The photographer's continuing obsession with the darkest side of the young, white American male. Contains the 30-plate fellatio sequence involving an angelic-looking youth and an older woman that he teased in "Teenage Lust", then expanded to ten more plates in the latter title's Second Edition, and shows here in its entirety, making the book an indispensable part of his oeuvre. For Larry Clark, childhood is the recollection and representation - through young "alter ego" models - of his own wild adolescence. "Larry Clark confronts us with lucid images of male sexuality and its equally creative and destructive impulses. Combines an overview of Clark's work ranging from collages and found images to photographs from his native Oklahoma in the late 1960's, with a new series of tender and erotic portraits of a skater, the latest incarnation of the mythical eternal youth Clark idolizes in his work" (Publisher's blurb). What is often seen (and criticized) as Larry Clark's voyeuristic and sensationalistic depiction of youthful lives is the photographer's way of expressing his admiration for the path they have chosen, a path that will clearly not lead them to the American Dream. An absolute "must-have" title for Larry Clark collectors. This copy is very boldly and beautifully signed in black pen-marker at the bottom of the front free endpaper, as is his custom, by Larry Clark. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a contemporary photography classic. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Scalo Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. It is the single most beautiful signed copy we have ever seen. A rare signed copy thus. 110 color, 48 duotone plates. Larry Clark's "Tulsa" was selected as one of the greatest photography books in "The Photobook". Both "Tulsa" and "Teenage Lust" were selected as two of the "Seminal Photography Books of the 20th Century" in the "Book of 101 Books". One of the most influential photographers of our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER LARRY CLARK TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 3931141128.