Martins Creek, Pennsylvania 1991

Larry Fink made this photograph, Martins Creek, Pennsylvania, using gelatin silver. The tones here are like shades of thought itself, ranging from the solid darks of the stacked tires to the wispy nothingness of the smoke, or is it steam? It makes me think about how photography, like painting, is a process of layering, of adding and subtracting until you find the image hiding in the material. Look at the way the light reflects off the truck’s surface, picking up every scratch and imperfection. The bottle sitting precariously on the edge adds a touch of the everyday, grounding the image in a specific place and time. That bottle and the smoke together, it's this strange little dance between stillness and motion, presence and absence, a visual poem about life in the margins. Fink's work often has a documentary quality. He's like a less colorful, more gritty Nan Goldin. He captures life as it is actually lived. The truth is that art is less about answers and more about the questions we ask along the way.