New Year's Eve, Tavern on the Green, New York City Possibly 1977 - 1978

Larry Fink snapped this New Year's Eve revelry at Tavern on the Green in New York City. It’s a black and white photograph, capturing a moment in time, like a memory half-faded but still pulsing with life. I imagine Fink, weaving through the crowd, his camera an extension of his eye, searching for that unguarded moment. The light, the shadows, the way the dancers are frozen in time—it all feels like he's painting with light. Look at the man's suit, crisp and dark against the soft blur of the woman's dress, the deer lurking like a ghost in the background. It is a tender record of a very staged event. There's a raw, unpolished quality to it, like a snapshot from a dream. It reminds me of Diane Arbus. It feels like Fink is saying, "Here, look at this. Look at the beauty and the strangeness of it all." And in that moment, we're all in the Tavern on the Green, caught in the dance of life.