Allentown Museum, Pennsylvania 1975

This photograph was made by Larry Fink, who was born in 1941. It is a gelatin silver print, a process that involves creating a negative on film, then using light to transfer the image onto paper coated with light-sensitive silver halides. Fink's images have a distinctive look because of his darkroom technique, which involves dodging and burning to manipulate the contrast. You can see this effect in the deep blacks and bright highlights that give the photograph its dramatic quality. The material of the photograph itself—the emulsion and the paper—becomes a key part of the final artwork. The gelatin silver print was a staple of 20th-century photography. Its reproducibility democratized image-making, and Fink, with his focus on social dynamics and class, used this medium to challenge traditional notions of beauty and worthiness. He shows us that photography, like any craft, can be used to tell stories and question the status quo.