Montauk, New York 1977

Larry Fink made this photograph, *Montauk, New York*, using gelatin silver. The greyscale is dense, like charcoal dust, with soft tones that create a melancholic, almost dreamlike quality. The composition captures a group of figures outdoors, seemingly caught in a moment of casual repose. The blurring gives it an immediacy, as if the scene unfolded too quickly for the camera to fully capture. This imperfection, this embrace of the out-of-focus, is where the photograph finds its power. The surface has a tactile quality with subtle grain, a testament to the photographic process itself. The figures are soft and smudgy, as if to mimic the hazy memory of a summer afternoon. It reminds me of the work of Diane Arbus, who, like Fink, had a gift for finding the beauty in everyday life, the drama in the mundane. Ultimately, Fink’s photograph invites us to reflect on the ephemeral nature of experience, the way moments slip through our fingers like grains of sand.