CLARENCE
JOHN LAUGHLIN An
Artist With A Camera
SUMMARY
Clarence John Laughlin: An Artist with a Camera chronicles the life of one of America's most significant, and enigmatic visual artists. Laughlin was a photographer, writer, surrealist, and architectural preservationist, whose life's work was to document the cultural, social, and spiritual landscape of twentieth century America.
Laughlin challenged people to look for the extraordinary in the ordinary. His photographic legacy of over 17,000 master prints is now considered to be one of the most important archives in American photography. For years, Laughlin traveled throughout his home state of Louisiana photographing plantations along the Mississippi River in the hopes that the pictures would spark an interest in architectural preservation. He also traveled across the U.S. documenting hundreds of Victorian homes and buildings that were in danger of being destroyed. In many cases, his photographs, and related writings, are all that is left of these architectural treasures. Additionally, in an era when photography was not yet regarded as an art form, Laughlin explored the creative uses of the camera, producing a body of surrealistic images that expressed the detrimental effect that fear, hatred and confusion has on the human spirit.
This film is a celebration of the life & work of one of Louisiana's greatest visual artists.