From blue collar to black tie, Larry Fink has photographed gatherings of every sort during his 40-year career. Keenly attuned to the emotional vibrations that animate social events, he deploys basic capacities of photography—framing, flash, depth of field—to show us gestures, textures, and fleeting expressions we would otherwise miss.

Fink is, among other things, a society photographer, but he doesn't flatter the elite. From 2000 to 2009, Fink documented Vanity Fair's annual Oscar-night party. The very presence of Fink—who is neither paparazzo nor photojournalist—indicates how the parties, and Hollywood culture, have evolved. Mainstream media coverage gives everyone a glimpse of glamour, but Fink provides a different kind of access. The revelation of Fink's society photographs is not that celebrities are superficial, but that their humanity is profound and complex.