(B: LAWRENCE B. FINK): b (Brooklyn, NY, March 11, 1941)

Larry Fink, born to staunchly political and socially-conscious parents, grew up in the company of intellectuals and artists, and regularly spent afternoons at the studios of Raphael and Moses Soyer, where he photographed his first masterpiece at 16 years old.

Under the early tutelage of Lisette Model and alongside fellow students Diane Arbus and Garry Winogrand, Fink, using a hand-held flash, developed a unique and offbeat style of empathetic reportage.  His early work, dating from 1957 to 1975 and virtually untouched until recently, shows the influence of the great New York School photographers and the development of his unabashed style.

With his distinct visual and political perspective, Fink explores the underbelly of human interaction of upper and lower classes, which is the continual theme of his work. His seminal body of work Social Graces examines the dichotomies and intricacies of the social circles amongst high-class Manhattanites and the working class of rural Pennsylvania.  Social Graces was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1979. 

His contemporary and current work continues to reflect his highly informed political and social views, which are evident in his Boxing, Runway, Forbidden Pictures, Somewhere There’s Music and recent assignments for Vanity Fair in the two series Poverty and Oscar Parties.  A leading commercial photographer, Fink is regularly on top advertising, magazine and editorial assignments. His work regularly appears in Detour, Entertainment Weekly, Gourmet Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and more.

Currently a professor at Bard College, Fink has taught photography since 1964 and held positions at Yale, Cooper Union, Parsons School of Design, and New York University.

Larry Fink lives on a farm in rural Pennsylvania with his wife, sculptor Martha Posner.  The farm, with its small series of guesthouses and collection of a-typical farm animals, serves as a roundtable of intellectual and political dialogue for its fascinating entourage of visitors.