The Beats and The Vanities: Larry Fink at Armani/Silos

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Larry Fink's parents raised him in a progressive and political household, so it is perhaps not surprising that aged 17 this young man, born in Brooklyn, would become part of the late beat movement. Hanging out with his friends Turk, Randy and Mary, he lived in the basement of the Sullivan Street Playhouse, where he and his gang dug ‘tunnels’ into the famous Village Gate jazz club next door. There they could see the likes of John Coltrane, Charles Mingus and Art Blakey perform; to this day Fink is a jazz fan, and he plays, listens to it and studies it with a passion.

But Fink was not just a participant in this hedonistic, underground lifestyle where his band of friends would attend protest marches against the Vietnam War and take up with students demonstrating on campus. He was an observer. Fink discovered he had a talent with a medium-format camera and started to document the life he and his friends were leading. The portfolio of pictures called The Beats (published in book form by Powerhouse Books) is a record of these poetic adventures, including a hitchhiking trip in true Kerouac style from New York to Mexico.

What you see in these black and white time capsules is an intimate study of the people involved. Non-judgmental in tone, these pictures show us moments of interaction that speak of a sensitive eye. "It’s about empathy… I like to say that if I was not a photographer, I would be in jail. I want to touch everything. My life is profoundly physical. Photography for me is the transformation of desire," says Fink.

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A new show in Milan, staged by Giorgio Armani at his exhibition space the Armani/Silos, hangs these beat pictures with another portfolio of Fink’s from a very different era. The Vanities (also published as a book, by Schirmer/Mosel) features images from Fink’s stint as a society photographer between 2000 and 2009, a time when Vanity Fair magazine commissioned him to cover its glitzy Hollywood parties and he was something of a fixture at the most exclusive social events in both LA and New York.

On the surface of it, you could not imagine a world more different to that depicted in The Beats, with its scruffy rooms and freewheeling youths sleeping on the floor or hanging out on MacDougal Street and in Washington Square Park. And yet what we see again is how Fink simply aims to capture the most intimate of moments, without any social commentary whatsoever. "This is the party of the parties, they say. At a party, and especially a party like this, everyone wants to be seen. How they are seen is another matter, and I take this matter into my hands," he says.

Fink acknowledges that the two groups of pictures inform one another. "I am really pleased that Armani has decided to exhibit The Beats and The Vanities together. The pictures have more in common than might at first be obvious: from two different very, very opposing levels of egotism, The Beats and The Vanities live within the same valley. Each set of participants fashions themselves to be on the top of the mountain of contribution. It is great that Armani has recognised and understood this and it is the first time both collections of images will hang in the same space. I understand this is also the first time that the Armani/Silos has presented a one-man photography exhibition, and that is indeed an honour. Of course, the images were made 45 years from each other. The Beats were photographed when I was a young romantic, The Vanities when I was – not hardened – but a humanist ironist. Therein, the bodies of work have different aesthetics and moral calculations for all that come to see."

Giorgio Armani is clearly a fan: "I find Larry Fink's eye compelling. It is as if you are there, with him, observing an intimate moment," he says. "The people in these pictures are caught off-guard, apparently unaware of the camera, which is surprising as Larry must have often been quite close to his subjects. He obviously has an unassuming approach – these images appear entirely natural. The interesting thing we see in running these two portfolios – The Beats and The Vanities – together in one exhibition, something that has not been done before, is that whether Larry’s lens was seeking out kids of his own generation in the 1950s or famous movie stars in the early years of the 21st century, his intimate and unconventional eye always highlights the humanity of the situation."

Thus, in The Vanities images, Fink is clearly not interested in the who, but in the what-is-happening. It's a refreshing approach in these days of long-lens paparazzi and celebrity obsession where we have come to objectify the famous, not for what they do, but for their universal familiarity; as if they are symbols (of success? Wealth? Happiness?) not people. For Fink, the famous and the lesser stars that orbit around them are simply part of another scene of human gesture, response and interaction. Like some sort of artist/anthropologist, he brings us right into this inner circle, just as he did before with his 50s friends. "I really do embrace – or try to embrace – the souls of all people, regardless of their conditions," he explains.

Larry Fink says, "I photograph because I am alive. I want to transmit my passion for living to posterity in the best way I can." Certainly, this exhibition stands as a testament to that passion and to this man's love of life. This one-man show follows others he has had at the likes of New York's Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum of Modern Art; he has also had one-man shows in Europe, at the Musee de l’Elysee in Lausanne, Switzerland, and the Musee de la Photographie in Charleroi, Belgium, for example. Fink has received multiple awards, two John Simon Guggenheim Fellowships and two National Endowment for the Arts, Individual Photography Fellowships. He has also taught for over 50 years, holding professorial posts at Yale University, Cooper Union and currently Bard College.

The Beats and The Vanities, Photographs by Larry Fink features 125 original black and white photographs – 54 from The Beats, and 71 from The Vanities – and is mounted on the ground floor of the Armani/Silos.

The Beats and The Vanities, Photographs by Larry, 29 March until 30 July at the Armani/Silos, Via Bergognone 40, 20144 Milan, Italy; armanisilos.com