The film director (of Kids, as well as, er, a video for Chris Isaak) is also a prolific photographer, and has been for 50 years! His first French retrospective will be held in Paris in October.

Larry Clark was born in 1943 in Tulsa, USA. This exhibition, created in close collaboration with the artist, looks back over 50 years of creations with over 200 original photos, the majority of them never seen before. From his black & white shots from the early 60s to the films he has made since 1995, such as Kids (1995), Bully (2001) and Ken Park (2002), Larry Clark, internationally renowned for his work, gives a no-holds-barred view of lost youth and the delinquency of certains adolescents.
Together with the shots of newly-born babies and animals that his mother used to take (he was her assistant), the exhibition presents his famous images of Tulsa (1971) and Teenage Lust (1983), as well as unseen work from the same period. His 16 mm film about drug addicts in Tulsa, filmed in 1963, has recently been found again and is also to be shown for the first time.

From the skateboarders in New York to the latino ghetto of Los Angeles, Larry Clark reveals in his photos from the 1990s and 2000 the daily life of adolescents trying to keep boredom at bay by experimenting with drugs, sex and firearms. The 1992 series, The Perfect Childhood (1993) and Punk Picasso (2003), all born form the culture of the street and rock music, confirm his sharp view on the marginality that America refuses to see.

The exhibiton Kiss the past hello by Larry Clark is at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la ville de Paris (here) from 8th October 2010 – 2nd January 2011.

Open from Tuesday – Sunday from 10am – 6pm (late night opening Thursdays until 10pm). Admission price to be confirmed.

Official museum site: www.mam.paris.fr

Larry Clark’s official site (not much on there at the moment): www.larryclarkofficialwebsite.com

Hear him tweet: www.twitter.com/punkPicasso

Larry Clark on IMDB.com : here

Bonus ! Chris Isaak talks about Larry Clark and his (actually quite dull) video for Solitary Man.