When Larry Clark turned 71 this January, he found himself staring at thousands of one-of-a-kind prints he'd accumulated over his career. Behind-the-scenes snapshots from iconic films like Kids; outtakes from his calendar shoot for Supreme; portraits of ragtag gangs of skate kids and street hustlers – what was he going to do with them?
As it turns out, the answer wasn't donating them to an archive or sell them off to a wealthy collector. Instead, Clark is selling the one-of-a-kind images – many of which were printed at pharmacies and one hour photo shops – to the public, all at the (relatively) low price of £100 an image.
In his words, the sale is for "all the kids that come to my shows in their thousands and could never afford ten to fifteen thousand dollars for a print... This is a pay back to all the skate rats and collectors who would like a souvenir so I can die happy".
The 4x6 inch and 5x7 inch colour prints were photographed between 1992 and 2010, when the filmmaker was working on movies like Kids (1995), Bully (2001) and Ken Park (2002).
For one week in July, Clark is shipping over a large wooden crate stacked with his photographs to the Simon Lee Gallery in London, where fans will be able to rummage through his archive and score an exclusive print at a fraction of what it would usually cost. The London sale follows on from a similar initiative in New York.
Read our profile with Larry Clark's new crew of Parisian street kids here.
Sale takes place from 1 July to 6 July at the Simon Lee Gallery in London. simonleegallery.com
