Larry Fink on Composition and Improvisation

In this installment of The Photography Workshop Series, Larry Fink—well known for his layered pictures in social settings—explores composing photographs and improvising within a scene to create images with both feeling and meaning. Aperture Foundation works with the world’s top photographers to distill their creative approaches to, teachings on, and insights into photography—offering the workshop experience in a book. Our goal is to inspire photographers at all levels who wish to improve their work, as well as readers interested in deepening their understanding of the art of photography. Through words and photographs, in this volume Fink reveals insight into his own practice and discusses a wide range of creative issues, from connecting with the subject in front of the lens to shaping a vision that is authentic. Photographer Lisa Kereszi, a student of Larry Fink, provides the introduction.

Format: Paperback / softback
Number of pages: 127
Publication date: 2014-05-31
Measurements: 7.5 x 9.9 x 0.5 inches
ISBN: 9781597112734

 

 

 

As a reading experience, the books feel more like monographs with expansive captions than generic how-to guides. –Eye Magazine

If his energy on the page is anything to go by, a workshop encounter with Larry Fink must be like grabbing a power cable firing out sparks. –Eye Magazine

“These highly readable and digestible books will get any photographer thinking and seeing in new ways.” –PDN on The Photography Workshop Series

“This sense of engagement with photography, giving it a heart and a soul and connection to pleasure and passion also comes across in Larry Fink on Composition and Improvisation.” –BJP

 

Larry Fink (born in New York, 1942; died in Martins Creek, PA, 2023) was a professor at Yale University School of Art; Cooper Union School of Art and Architecture; Parsons the New School for Design; Tyler School of Art, Temple University; and Bard College. His work has been widely exhibited in the United States, including solo exhibitions at Light Gallery, New York; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge; Museum of Modern Art, New York; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Lisa Kereszi is a photographer and educator. She is now the director of undergraduate studies at the Yale University School of Art, where she has taught since 2004. She has published five books, including Fun and Games and Joe’s Junk Yard. Her work is in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the Brooklyn Museum, and has appeared in the New Yorker, Harper’s, and the New York Times Magazine.