American Teen

In the 1970s and 1980s, while working as an art and photography teacher in Long Island, Joseph Szabo made photographs of his students, struck by the energy of a generation discovering itself in an era of rebellion and counterculture. Szabo’s black-and-white images evoke a dreamworld of adolescence as observed by a trusted outsider. Teens pose and smoke with a playful insouciance, lounge on the beach, and party at a Rolling Stones concert. Intrigued by the ambiguities of adolescent life, Szabo portrays a phase of transition shaped by self-consciousness and self-expression, and gestures to the inner depths beyond the reach of his camera.

First published in various volumes between the 1970s and the 2000s, Szabo’s pictures influenced many photographers and filmmakers. In this definitive new book, he brings together renowned and unseen work to form an unforgettable portrait of a generation and a timeless depiction of coming of age.