Peter Beard and Friends, East Hampton, New York 1976

Larry Fink made this black and white photograph, “Peter Beard and Friends, East Hampton, New York,” in an unknown year. It captures a moment of apparent conviviality in a social gathering. Fink’s work often explores social dynamics and class distinctions, and this image offers a glimpse into a specific cultural scene. East Hampton, part of the Hamptons, is known as a playground for the wealthy elite. The photograph documents that privileged milieu. What does this image tell us about that world? The figures cluster tightly, they are fashionable and self-assured, and they seem unconcerned with external pressures. But the setting is unglamorous, and the composition is off-kilter, which perhaps suggests an atmosphere of excess. To fully understand this photograph, one might research the social history of the Hamptons, the biography of Peter Beard, and the broader trends in American social life during the period the photograph was taken. As historians, we look to such details to understand art as a reflection of its time.