Benefit, The Museum of Modern Art, New York City 1977

Larry Fink's photograph, "Benefit", captures a moment frozen in time. I imagine Larry, moving with stealth, capturing this scene. There's a beautiful dance happening here, a kind of call and response. The grainy black and white adds a sense of history, like an old memory surfacing. The light is hitting the subjects just right, revealing every wrinkle and contour of their faces. What are they thinking? What are they saying? Is it gossip? Art world secrets? As a fellow artist, I've spent a lot of time observing people in their natural habitats. Sometimes it feels intrusive, but it’s also about bearing witness, and in this work Larry is saying something about class, something about the act of observing. Artists are all in conversation with each other and the world around them, using their unique visions to make us feel something, question something, or simply see something we might have missed.