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/Larry Clark

Teenage Lust

Larry Clark has an uncanny eye for teenage intimacy. If you've seen his unsettling film Ken Park, you've seen his unusually realistic and human treatment of adolescent sexuality. Ditto Kids. Ditto Bully. There's dignity in his handling of the complexities of adolescents, and that investigation of complexity invariably invites censorship.

At the Modern Art Museum of Paris (Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris), there's a retrospective of Clark's photography and, sure enough, there's controversy. But this time the controversy isn't over Clark's photography so much as it's over the museum and its decision to ban minors from viewing the work.

In response, Clark said, "This censorship is an attack by adults against teenagers. It's one way to tell them: 'Go back to your room; go watch all that crap online. We don't want you to go into a museum to look at art that talks about you and what is happening to you'."