Artist 1: Paris Hilton in her underwear in photographer Larry Sultan's parents house, and a beautiful car on fire

Artist 1: Paris Hilton in her underwear in photographer Larry Sultan's parents house, and a beautiful car on fire

Larry Sultan. Paris on My Parents’ Bed (2008) Chromogenic Print, 30" x 40". Courtesy Larry Sultan Estate and Stephen Wirtz Gallery (http://blog.sfmoma.org/2011/02/paris-hiltons-poetics/).

        An image from a series of photographs depicting the celebrity Paris Hilton, Paris on My Parents Bed (2008) is a seemingly candid photograph of the hotel heiress, laying on a bed in her bathrobe, casually checking her mobile phone (perhaps reading a text message or screening a phonecall). For this series for Interview Magazine, Photographer Larry Sultan (1946-2009) brought Ms. Hilton to the San Fernando Valley in California, shooting the American socialite in the setting of his parent's suburban home. Retaining elements from several decades of decor, the room seems to have a timeless nature; with the exception of Ms. Hilton's cell phone, this scene could have occurred anywhere between the mid-fifties to the twenty-first century. Decorated like a stereotypical teenage girl's bedroom, with a plethora of over-stuffed pillows and ruffly curtains, the setting seems to belie the more adult reputation of the subject. While a majority of the decorations and furnishings seem rather innocent, the presence of the lamp (an erect rooster...) seems a covert sexual reference which, when coupled with the model's posturing and her attention to the phone in her hand, seems to give the composition subtle sexual undertones.

        In regards to the project itself, Mr. Sultan was quoted as saying "I said I'd do it if she would go to my parents' house and let me photograph her in my childhood home in her underwear like a horny teenager" (CITATION NEEDED).

Larry Sultan (2008)

from Evidence (Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel) 1977

       "In the mid-’70s, Sultan and artist buddy Mike Mandel spent two years perusing thousands upon thousands of anonymous industrial photographs from corporate and government files, gleaning 50 specimens that, without captions or context, portrayed alien situations and alarming consequences with an impact as puzzling as it is wrenching." (http://www.obit-mag.com/articles/larry-sultan-the-pleasures-of-doubt)