Larry Fink - biography
"I love working with him. I can count on a picture that goes beyond the obvious, a picture that is both stylistically strong and in content reflects the story for which it has been taken." - Elisabeth Biondi, picture editor at New York Magazine
"Larry Fink's photographs are like the stage in a darkened theater. His hand-held flash splendidly illuminates the details of the drama before us and reveals the nuance of the personal moment," wrote Susan Kismaric, associate curator, Museum of Modern Art.
A practitioner of the "snapshot aesthetic", Larry Fink is catalogued with the esteemed ranks of Robert Frank, Diane Arbus and Garry Winogrand. He first picked up the camera at the age of thirteen. He found that taking pictures relaxed the inhibitions of introduction, making social interactions a thing of ease. Amid the crowd, rather than outside it, Fink is not a voyeur, but rather his work speaks a visual vernacular. The results of his tutelage with Lisette Model is that his pictures tend to expose the flaws in the polished façades we all present in the public arena. Fink's images often display the sensitive core of interpersonal-relationships, prevalent despite social posturing, whether mingled among unctuous characters at a high-society benefit or a down-home potluck setting of family.
Larry Fink has more than 60 prints in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art. Most of these pictures are from his first one-man show there in 1979. He has 8 prints currently hanging in the MOMA's new show "Museum As Muse." In 1997 his one-man show "Boxing" opened at The Whitney Museum in New York. He has received two Guggenheim fellowships and two NEA endowments, and presently has a career retrospective touring the museums of Europe. Larry Fink's published books include Social Graces, from his MOMA show, and Boxing from his Whitney show. In February 2000, Larry Fink's newest book Runway was released. In September 2001, Social Graces was re-released in conjunction with shows in Paris, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
Editorially, Larry Fink is under contract to Conde Nast and works for Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, GQ, and The New York Times Magazine. In May, 1997 he won the SPD gold medal with Dennis Freedman at W Magazine for his story looking at the world behind the scenes at fashion shows. His advertising portfolio includes campaigns for Cunard, Chivas Regal, Smirnoff, Godiva, Nike, Adidas, Baccardi, W Hotels, MasterCard and Bank of New York.
Larry Fink is a tenured professor of photography at Bard College.
AWARDS
1999 - Alfred Eisenstaedt Awards for Magazine Photography
1997 - Society of Publishing Designers’ Gold Medal, W Magazine
1993 to Present - Tenured professor, Bard College, Annandale
1986 to 1987 - National Endowment for the Arts, Individual Photography Fellowship
1980 - Seattle Arts Council Grant
1979, 1976 - The John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Photography
1978 to 1979 - Walker Evans Visiting Professor of Art, Yale School of Arts National Endowment for the Arts, Individual Photography Fellowship
BOOKS:
2001 - Social Graces (Re-Release) — Powerhouse Cultural Entertainment
2000 - Runway - Powerhouse Cultural Entertainment
1997 - Boxing - Powerhouse Cultural Entertainment Fish and Wine - Lafayette College
1996 - Uma Cidade Assi - Camara Municipal De Matosinhos
1984 - Social Graces - Aperture
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