Pat Sabatine's Eighth Birthday Party, Martins Creek, Pennsylvania 1977

Editor: This is Larry Fink's "Pat Sabatine's Eighth Birthday Party, Martins Creek, Pennsylvania," a gelatin-silver print from 1977. There's a feeling of raw joy in this black and white photo. The kids are just so exuberantly *there*. What strikes you most about this piece? Curator: It's the sheer honesty, isn't it? Fink isn't interested in sanitizing the moment. You've got the slightly rumpled tablecloth, the aunt with a cigarette and a soda – life lived in all its beautiful imperfection. It makes me wonder, what is beauty, really? Is it perfection, or is it this unvarnished truth? What do you think the greyscale does here? Editor: I think the lack of color definitely enhances that documentary feeling. It pushes the photo into a timeless zone, like it could be any birthday party, anywhere. Although the grainy textures give a very specific retro feel, too. Curator: Exactly! It's both specific to that moment and universally relatable. Think of genre paintings; it is like one, but alive. The composition, too, with the slightly off-kilter framing – it all adds to that feeling of immediacy. Fink seems to say, “Here it is. Life, raw and unfiltered.” It reminds me of Nan Goldin in some respects. Did the scale of the figures grab your attention? Editor: I hadn't thought about it but yes! Some figures loom, and some shrink... the hierarchy feels... intentional? Curator: Perhaps. I tend to think it reflects what the birthday means to those pictured - the joy and innocence and immediacy of the kids versus the world-weariness of the grown-ups, almost ghosts haunting their happy past... but perhaps it says as much about the artist, seeing himself, there... Editor: So it's like he’s holding a mirror up to everyday life and showing us ourselves, wrinkles and all? Curator: Precisely. It is beautiful to look unflinchingly. It makes one want to find those frozen-in-time pictures with dusty albums from our own lives! Thanks for this insight, it changes my outlook on similar art, forever!