Larson completed his master's degree from the prestigious Institute of Design in Chicago in 1968, where he studied under Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind.
Larson was one of the first to create slit-scan photographs (see strip photography), made using medium format film and a special motorized camera.
[citation needed] With these stretched-out images, Larson managed to portray the fluid feeling of moving cinema within a still photograph.
Fascinated by the way a fax machine could convert a photograph using audio code, he used this new technological device to create works of art.
Through the last few decades, Larson has delved into the moving image, investigating film projectors and toying with notions of video art.