Pat Sabatine's Twelfth Birthday Party, Martins Creek, Pennsylvania 1981

Larry Fink made this photograph, Pat Sabatine's Twelfth Birthday Party, Martins Creek, Pennsylvania, using gelatin silver. Look at the way the light spills across the photograph, carving out the volumes in the space. The high contrast and narrow tonal range create a real intensity and almost make the surface vibrate. I'm thinking about the graininess and how it lends the picture this feeling of raw directness. It's almost like the image is being built up out of tiny particles of light, each one distinct but working together to form the whole. I love how the composition is structured in simple vertical bands, and yet the angle of the door pulls you into the interior. The woman’s body is bisected by shadow, her gaze is warm and direct, and it feels like she is inviting you in. There's a casualness here that puts me in mind of Nan Goldin, but Fink's pictures also have this studied quality, this careful attention to composition and light, that gives them a timeless feel. Ultimately this piece reminds us that the best art often comes from looking closely at the everyday.