The Late Larry Fink
Self Portrait with Molly, Martins Creek, 1983 © Larry Fink, Courtesy Robert Mann Gallery
Written by: Madeline Lerner
Acclaimed photographer Larry Fink passed away at his Martins Creek, Pennsylvania home. He was 82.
Larry Fink had an unparalleled photographic eye, renowned for his keen observations of human connections and social dynamics, earning him a well-deserved reputation among the greats.
Count and Kelly, Martins Creek, Pennsylvania, June 1977 © Larry Fink, Courtesy Robert Mann Gallery
Born in Brooklyn in 1941, Fink was inspired by his parents' rich cultural and political influences and grew up taking pictures. He eventually became a student of Lisette Model in the 1960s, a relationship that catapulted his career into portraiture and photos that document the human essence. During college, he completed his series titled “The Beats,” photographs of members of a New York artistic community sometimes known as the Beat Generation. For the rest of his career, he was fascinated by the artists and celebrities of America.
John Coltrane, 1962 © Larry Fink, Courtesy Robert Mann Gallery
The unchanging theme of his photography is that it reveals the intricacies of human interaction and existence, immortalizing candid moments that unfold into a larger, profound narrative of importance. They capture emotions, connections, and secret, intimate moments during conversation.
Oslin's Graduation Party, Martins Creek, Pennsylvania, June 1977 © Larry Fink, Courtesy Robert Mann Gallery
This was especially true in his series titled “Social Graces.” Probably the most famous works of his career, this series contrasted parties and socializing within high-class New York social circles with those of a working-class family in rural Pennsylvania. Taken throughout the 1970s, the photos explore his interests in social class. They were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1979 and later published in a book. He pursued this interest further in other series such as “Runaway” and “The Vanities: Hollywood Parties 2000-2009.”
English Speaking Union, New York, New York, December 1975 © Larry Fink, Courtesy Robert Mann Gallery
Larry Fink’s work has been featured at the MoMA the Whitney Museum of American Art, among others, and he received the Guggenheim fellowship prize in 1976. He taught photography for more than 40 years and published 12+ books during his career.
“I am involved with the idea of reaching deeply into the pulsing matter of what it means to be alive and being vulnerable and seeing if I can cast an emotional legacy about being human,” Fink said in a 2011 interview with the New York Times. Fink’s life-long examination of human existence has impacted the art world, and he will surely be missed. He is survived by his second wife, Martha Posner, and his daughter, Molly, from his first marriage to Joan Snyder.
