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

Larry Fink made this gelatin silver print titled *Pat Sabatine's Twelfth Birthday Party, Martins Creek, Pennsylvania* sometime during his career. It’s hard to say exactly when. The grayscale image is a slice of life, a candid moment frozen in time. I find myself wondering about the relationship between the photographer and the subject, this woman framed in the doorway, half-lit, half-shadowed. What was it like for Fink to be there, a witness to this intimate, everyday scene? Was he an intruder? A welcome guest? It's like he’s playing with chiaroscuro—a technique of light and shadow. The wooden siding is coarse, weathered. It reminds me of the paintings of Lucien Freud somehow; the skin tones and the gritty textures, the stark, unvarnished reality. This photograph sits so comfortably in the space between documentary and art, a testament to Fink's ability to find beauty and meaning in the mundane. And that’s a timeless conversation that has inspired so many artists across time and media.