cover image Social Graces

Social Graces

Max Kozloff, Larry Fink. powerHouse Books, $55 (128pp) ISBN 978-1-57687-048-8

Traveling between the vastly different worlds of New York society and his working class neighbors in Martins Creek, Pa., throughout the late 1970s and early 80s, Larry Fink embarked on a project similar to Diane Arbus's, often capturing in his images some quality of which the subjects themselves are unaware. But Fink, unlike Arbus, doesn't seek the ""freak"" in everyone; empathy comes through in the Social Graces he finds and juxtaposes, even when the photos are less than flattering. First published in 1984, the book's bias toward the ""down-home"" Pennsylvania folks is evident in the images and Fink's essay from 1982 (he calls the New York socialites ""`political enemies'"" in quotations, but only half ironically). Yet a number of the 92 duotone photos are truly riveting, and Fink's observations of class dynamics 20 and 30 years ago still feel relevant today. (Nov.)