Artworks

LARRY SILVER (American, 1934 - )

Larry Silver is an American photographer best known for his documentation of subcultures and social landscapes within American society.

Silver was born in 1934 in New York, and began studying photography at the High School of Industrial Art in 1949. During this time, he met several members of the Photo League, including Weegee and Lou Bernstein. Eventually, Silver joined the Photo League himself and started photographing social landscapes across America, from the bodybuilders on Santa Monica Pier to the evolving metropolitan suburb of Westport Connecticut. Though Silver approached these works as documentary photographs, they contain a consistent sense of artistry and lyricism. In his more recent photography, Silver has been most interested in combining traditional landscape photography with experimental darkroom techniques. Silver’s work can be found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Smithsonian Art Museum in Washington DC, and several more institutions.