Friday Night Fights were a big deal when Larry Fink was a young man: His weekend started with him listening to boxing broadcasts on the family radio. The matches exhilarated him, and the sport tapped into his love of the underdog. Indeed, throughout Mr. Fink’s photography career, he has plumbed similar themes, notably the problems and pride of being alive in a specific time.

“I’m in love with making pictures,” said Mr. Fink, 77. “More aptly, I’m in love with teaching and telling stories and giving us, the human beast, a kind of sense of our own nobility, a sense of destiny.”

His boxing fixation faded when the bouts started airing on television. Seeing the violence stirred something primal and unpleasant within him, pitting his pacifist nature against a strong desire for justice. It was a conflict he preferred to avoid.