A quarter century in black and white.

June 30, 2008 5:43 PM

Joseph Szabo has been photographing his teenage students for the past twenty-five years, and has perfectly captured the ambivalence of that time of life. Samples from his books: Almost Grown, Jones Beach, Teenage, and Rolling Stones Fans.
posted by dobbs (20 comments total)

More! I could look at hundreds of these.

Well, ok, maybe not hundreds of these.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 5:49 PM on June 30, 2008

Hey wow I clicked on a few of these randomly and found the cover of Dinosaur Jr.'s Green Mind. Good stuff, thanks.
posted by arcanecrowbar at 5:52 PM on June 30, 2008

The poem with this one is really good:

I walk the streets at two A.M. nude.
No, I don't.
posted by nosila at 5:58 PM on June 30, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

Hey wow I clicked on a few of these randomly and found the cover of Dinosaur Jr.'s Green Mind

Thank you! It was driving me crazy trying to figure out why I knew that picture...
posted by dersins at 6:06 PM on June 30, 2008

This could have been taken yesterday.
posted by regicide is good for you at 6:57 PM on June 30, 2008

I dimly recollect that some chains refused to stock the Dino Jr album because of the cover image. This one made it into one of the later 'Family of Man' collections and went iconic for me long ago.
posted by Kinbote at 7:04 PM on June 30, 2008

Not a great URL, though. Really.
posted by stevil at 7:05 PM on June 30, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Hey wow I clicked on a few of these randomly and found the cover of Dinosaur Jr.'s Green Mind.

Hey, me too.
posted by brevator at 7:09 PM on June 30, 2008

Springsteen's original plan for the cover design of "Born in the USA" was to use a photo from "Almost Grown" - he was a real fan of Szabo's work. I wish he'd stuck with that idea.
posted by davebush at 7:34 PM on June 30, 2008

Not a great URL, though. Really.

Yeah, I thought the same thing.

Joseph Szabo has been photographing his teenage students for the past twenty-five years

And I bet a few other guys have been, too, knowhatimean?!?
posted by yhbc at 7:36 PM on June 30, 2008

She was 15, I was 17, and it ended too soon, of course. We are both now grown.

But it will last forever.
posted by plexi at 7:52 PM on June 30, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I remember reading about this in a 70s issue of Seventeen, sometime in the 90s. I've been trying to figure out who the photographer was for the longest time, and I always, always liked this photograph. Seventeen gave it the caption "An androgynous couple in a high school hallway".
posted by Xere at 8:20 PM on June 30, 2008

ha!

These should all have raymond pettibon type quotes. like what plexi said.
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 8:46 PM on June 30, 2008

I bet this guy would get called a pedophile terrorist today.
posted by redteam at 8:57 PM on June 30, 2008

I would like these much better if they were labelled for when they were taken. Without that, they are just photos. With the time, even the less remarkable become valuable, to me.
posted by Goofyy at 11:20 PM on June 30, 2008

Yeah, it's tough to guess when each photo was taken.
posted by dabitch at 12:58 AM on July 1, 2008

It just wouldn't be allowed today. No parent would sign the release.
posted by chuckdarwin at 1:02 AM on July 1, 2008

I think Smiley just found the 24-year-old homeless guy from Gloucester...
posted by Kinbote at 2:17 AM on July 1, 2008

Evocative… but really, this is a tease to shell out for the book, which I probably won't do. If I (or someone I knew) was in it though, definitely - it's iconic.
posted by tellurian at 7:07 AM on July 1, 2008

Wait, are you saying life is supposed to have less ambivalence as you get older?

I must be doing it wrong.
posted by delmoi at 6:45 PM on July 1, 2008