Larry W. Cook

Issue 172

Horizons (2022)
On The Other Side of Landscape (2021)
Artist archive (Collected 2016-22)

"This work reflects my interest in landscape and the perceptions of space, liberty, and belonging. This work pays homage to prison photographers and the importance of prison vernacular images. Preserving this history and recognizing its contribution to contemporary society is essential. My archive of prison snapshots serves as source material for engaging with themes of freedom, family, and agency. I'm interested in how artist-driven archives are concerned with more than just facts but possibilities."

Larry W. Cook’s work critiques carceral systems in America by subverting the carceral gaze through multiple material and conceptual interventions. His installation draws together three complementary bodies of work that together examine visibility and subjectivity. The Other Side of Landscape imagines a future without mass incarceration while found Polaroids amplify agency by centering familial relationships and experiences of fatherhood and Black masculinity. Informed by his past experiences working as a club photographer in and around Washington, D.C., Cook frequently utilizes backdrops, pose, and gesture to create unique expressions of African American experience. This process informs the series Horizons which subverts the traditions of the landscape genre to imagine a post-carceral resolution and freedom. Through these three interweaving series, Cook creates an alternative carceral aesthetic that imagines liberation.

Larry W. Cook lives and works in Washington, D.C.
larrywcook.com | @larry_william21