Larry Fink, Opening the Sky


In 1980, the American photographer Larry Fink received a grant from the Seattle Museum of Art, or as he tells the story, My star was starting to rise. I was called and so, already a logger of sorts himself, Fink made a natural transition into photographing the rugged breed of men who selectively pillaged the deep, virgin forest of the Olympic Peninsula, in western Washington.

Fink was assigned to gypo logger Davey McCardle, who would prove a significant character in the story of making "Opening the Sky." Fink recalls, Back up the mountain with a flash in hand and a bag of forty pounds, a Mamiya C330 and a Leica M2 as my cameras, I was living a tentative life, jumping over logs rolling at me and sidestepping crevices and snakes, at the same time photographing the logging.(Stanley/Barker)