Laurence Fink

Background

Laurence Fink was born on March 11, 1941 in Brooklyn, New York, United States. His father, Bernard Fink, was a lawyer, and mother, Sylvia Caplan Fink, was an anti-nuclear weapon activist and an elder rights activist for the Gray Panthers.

Education

Laurence Fink grew up in a politically conscious household and has described himself as "a Marxist from Long Island." He studied at the New School for Social Research in New York City, where photographer Lisette Model was one of his teachers and encouraged his work.

Career

Laurence Fink has been on the faculty of Bard College since 1986. Earlier he taught at other institutions including the Yale University School of Art (1977-1978), Cooper Union School of Art and Architecture (1978-1983), Parsons School of Design, and New York University.

Laurence Fink left his longtime photography agency Bill Charles Represents on May 23, 2012.

Fink's best-known work is Social Graces, a series of photographs he produced in the 1970s that depicted and contrasted wealthy Manhattanites at fashionable clubs and social events alongside working-class people from rural Pennsylvania participating in events such as high school graduations. Social Graces was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1979 and was published in book form in 1984.

In 2001, for an assignment from The New York Times Magazine, Laurence Fink created a series of satirical color images of President George W. Bush and his cabinet (portrayed by stand-ins) in scenes of decadent revelry modeled on paintings by Weimar-era painters Max Beckmann, Otto Dix and George Grosz. The planned publication of the series was canceled after the September 11 attacks, but was displayed in the summer of 2004 at the PowerHouse Gallery in New York, in a show titled "The Forbidden Pictures: A Political Tableau."

Achievements

• Laurence Fink was the recipient of Guggenheim Fellowships in 1976 and 1979 and National Endowment for the Arts Individual Photography Fellowships in 1978 and 1986. In 2002 he received an honorary doctorate from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Fink on Warhol: New York Photographs of the 1960s

    (A long-lost photoshoot of the Warhol tribe at the peak of...)

    2017
  • Larry Fink on Composition and Improvisation: The Photography Workshop Series

    (In this book, Larry Fink - well-known for his layered pic...)

    2014

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Connections

Father:

Bernard Fink

Mother:

Sylvia Caplan Fink

Sylvia Caplan Fink was an anti-nuclear weapon activist and an elder rights activist for the Gray Panthers.

Sister:

Elizabeth Fink

Elizabeth Fink (1945-2015) was noted lawyer.

Friend:

Lisette Model