We were all deeply saddened to hear that Larry Sultan passed away this Sunday. I can remember the first time I spoke with him on the phone, nervous and excited to be speaking to the Larry Sultan, whose series "Pictures From Home" had been so influential for me. I got one of the best surprises that day—meeting an idol of mine and having him be even more than I had expected. Larry was always the friendly voice on the other end of the phone—excited about the projects that we were doing together. He could be counted on to be a good sport, even under difficult circumstances. When he flew to Brazil last year to shoot our Dr. Ivo Pitanguy story, pretty much everything that could have gone wrong did. His flight out of San Francisco was thwarted by a horrible storm, which caused him to miss his connecting flight, which then led to him miss the boat going to the doctor's private island—but each time we spoke he was in a good mood laughing about how unpredictable life could be.
Larry was always enthusiastic to send his edit and very interested in speaking about his choices, which made my job more exciting and more interesting in every way. The art world world will truly miss this master image maker.
"The Persian Conquest," July 2009
"Suzanne Saperstein," December 2008
"Dr. Ivo," July 2008
"Pacific Heights," January 2007Nadia Vellam is the Photo Editor of W magazine.
Portrait: Kelly Sultan
