Photographer Larry Fink puts New York in focus

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Larry Fink has built a creative career on contradictions. Describing himself as a "Marxist from Long Island", he made a name for himself documenting the US's upper classes. And it is perhaps his best-known work – the monograph Social Graces, shot in his trademark black and white in the late 1970s – that best captures this juxtaposition, contrasting the lives of well-to-do urban New Yorkers against those of rural Pennsylvanians.

A new exhibition of his work, unearthing photographs that haven't been displayed for decades, once again explores the human experience behind social divides. Fink on Warhol: New York Photographs of the 1960s showcases images of the famed avant-garde artist during the halcyon days of his Silver Factory alongside those who frequented it – including Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, Ingrid Superstar, Susanna Campbell and Gerard Malanga – all shot in 1966 on assignment for the newspaper East Side Review.

In contrast, it also features compelling images from 1964 to 1968, when Fink was entrenched in the political and protest movements of the decade. The photographs document the deep tensions that underscored society at the time, as the fight for civil rights and anti-war sentiment came into the spotlight.

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The series will be on display at the Spazio Damiani, Bologna, from 17 February until 30 April, while an accompanying book, showcasing the complete set of 80 previously unpublished images, will be available from 30 March.

Fink on Warhol: New York Photographs of the 1960s will be at the Spazio Damiani, Via dello Scalo, Bologna from 17 February until 30 April. An accompanying book of the same name will be published by Damiani on 30 March 2017, £38; damianieditore.com