Gasparetti Baptism, Martins Creek, Pennsylvania
April 1979
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 35.9 × 35.7 cm (14 1/8 × 14 1/16 in.) sheet: 50.3 × 40.3 cm (19 13/16 × 15 7/8 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of the Tony Podesta Collection, Washington, DC
Accession Number
2018.33.10
Art Historical Context
In the spring of 1979, Larry Fink captured a poignant moment of communal ritual in *Gasparetti Baptism Martins Creek, Pennsylvania*. This gelatin silver print depicts a baptism ceremony in the rural heartland of eastern Pennsylvania, likely within an-American community, where family faith intertwine amid everyday American life. Fink, renowned his raw, empathetic documentary style influenced by mid-20th-century photographers Robert Frank, immersed himself in such intimate social scenes, revealing the unvarnished humanity of working-class gatherings. Printed in the classic gelatin silver proces...
About the Artist
Larry Fink
Larry Fink (1941–2023) was a pioneering American photographer renowned for his raw, black-and-white images that pierced the veneers of social gatherings, revealing the human condition across class divides. Born Laurence Bruce Fink on March 11, 1941, in Brooklyn, New York, to a Jewish family—his father Bernard a lawyer, his mother Sylvia an anti-nuclear activist—he grew up in a politically charged ...