LARRY FINK
The Vanities
February 3 through March 19, 2011
Reception for the Artist: Thursday, February 3, 7 - 9 p.m.
The Fahey/Klein gallery is pleased to present a selection of photographs from the distinguished photographer Larry Fink’s newest upcoming publication, The Vanities: Hollywood Parties 2000-2009 (Schirmer/Mosel 2011). This exhibition features photographs documenting a decade of Vanity Fair’s most exclusive events, including their famed and notorious annual Oscar party. Set in the dark corners of these late night soirees, Fink’s images capture the decadence, debauchery, and engaging social interactions of Hollywood’s elite.
In an age where celebrity culture, wealth and beauty have taken on a cult-like status within society, Larry Fink’s newest publication provides a searing glimpse of the moments and exchanges that “reveal the more intimately seductive and ephemerally anxious tremors that can rise up in groups.” (Max Kozloff, Social Graces) Like a Caravaggio painting, Fink’s unforgiving on-camera flash highlights, as well as conceals, the interpersonal yet superficial connections revealed during a course of an evening. “No one poses or gets ruffled – the photographer enjoys an easy passage through the proceedings – and yet the scene, from frame to frame, appears as the most transparent charade of sociability.” (Max Kozloff, Social Graces)
From a tender touch between Naomi Watts and Lucy Liu, to a discerning gaze from Lindsay Lohan as she leans to whisper in a confidant’s ear, Larry Fink accentuates the details and nuances reminiscent from some of his predecessors, Lisette Model and Weegee. Provocative yet refined, Fink’s images allude to the atmosphere of a moment. “A picture is not a murder. It is simply a moment which suggests so many things. I don’t distort. I comment honestly and make pictures of my perceptions. The celebrity is but a person to me. I see them within the primary moment. I try not to have previous assumptions.” (New York Times, Interview with Adriana Teresa)
A small selection of photographs from Larry Fink’s earlier work, Social Graces, will also be on view.
Larry Fink has been a photographer for over 45 years. His work had been exhibited internationally, as well as at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He is the recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships, and two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Fink has taught at Cooper Union, Parsons School of Design, Yale University, and since 1988, has been a professor of photography at Bard College. His work is regularly featured in publications such as Vanity Fair, GQ, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, W and The New York Times Magazine. His monographs include Social Graces (1984, reissued 2001), Boxing (1997), Runway (2000), Somewhere There’s Music (2006), and most recently The Vanities: Hollywood Parties 2000-2009 (2011).
Press Images Available Upon Request.
Fahey/Klein Gallery
148 N. La Brea Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323 934 2250
www.faheykleingallery.com