Rags and riches: Larry Fink's photos lay bare 70s America's wealth gap
Rags and riches: Evocative photographs lay bare the gap between Manhattan’s upper crust and the working class of 1970s America
- A new black and white photo series by photographer Larry Fink lays bare the contrast between wealth and poverty in 1970s America
- Fink split his time between Manhattan’s upper-crust and Martins Creek, Pennsylvania, where he photographed the working-class Sabtine family
- Here Dailymail.com offers a unique glimpse into Fink’s latest exhibition at the Robert Mann Gallery in New York
Photographer Larry Fink attended many high society parties in 1970s Manhattan, frequently rubbing shoulders with the city’s upper crust.
To put himself at ease, he would always down several gin and tonics at the bar first.
The parties were a world away from Fink’s other life which entailed working and living on a farm in Martins Creek, Pennsylvania.
In his moving series Social Graces, the acclaimed photographer, now 81, lays bare the contrast between these two worlds, offering an insightful glimpse into the extreme wealth and extreme poverty of 1970s America.
Dailymail.com has obtained several of the famous shots, which form part of the Larry Fink exhibition being showcased at the Robert Mann Gallery in New York until March 4.
Many pictures center around the working-class Sabatine family who Fink met in Martins Creek.
The photographer would capture their everyday moments, such as birthday parties and graduations, before hopping in his truck and driving hours to balls in New York City and discos at its famous Studio 54 venue.
Larry Fink’s Social Graces explores the difference between Upper Crust Manhattan and the working-class Sabatine family in Pennsylvania. A man and woman dance together at an English Speaking Union event in December 1975
Fink would photograph everyday moments in the Sabatine family life. This image shows daughter Oslin’s Graduation Party in June 1977
The series became a critical success, with a 2001 New York Times review claiming it ‘does one of the things that straight photography does best: provide excruciatingly intimate glimpses of real people and their all-too-fallibly human lives.’
The exhibition at the Robert Mann Gallery, which is running until March 4, also includes images from Fink’s other series Boxing and Loggers.
Born in Brooklyn in 1941, the photographer was privately taught and mentored by photographer Lisette Model.
He is known for his distinctive style, using a handheld flash separate from his camera.
His work has been published in Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, W, and GQ Magazine among others and his work has been showcased everywhere from the Museum of Modern Art to the Whitney Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Boat Train to Paris: Fink’s Social Graces series was influenced by his mother who he described contradictorily as a bourgeois woman and a Marxist
Sabatine Matriarch Jean features heavily in the series. Pictured here presenting a cake to her son Pat on his eighth birthday in April 1977
Two girls sip drinks at the Second Hungarian Ball in New York City. The images are now being showcased at the Robert Mann Gallery
Little Brown Jug, California, August 1997. Fink once said of his work: ‘I don’t distort. I comment honestly and make pictures of my perceptions.’
Jean Sabatine pictured at Christmas in 1983. The image forms part of Fink’s Social Grace which was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1979
Socialites dance together at the famous Studio 54 venue in New York
Baby Molly is pictured in Martin’s Creek in 1983. Fink is famed for his distinctive style, using a handheld flash separate from his camera
Count and Kelly are pictured in Martins Creek, Pennsylvania in June 1977
A man in overalls is pictured at Camp Grisdale Shelton, Washington, July 1980
A photo from Oslin Sabatine’s graduation party shows a woman in a romper laughing and joking at the Creek
The Larry Fink exhibition at the Robert Mann Gallery also features images of Fink’s Boxing series. Blue Horizon, Philadelphia, December 1994
Champs Gym, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 1988. The image forms part of Fink’s Boxing series
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