Schools

Malverne Teacher Captures Teen Spirit in Photos

Joseph Szabo exhibits photography collection at Heckscher Museum of Art, featuring Malverne alumni.

They were ordinary teenagers.

In the hallways and on the school grounds of they were seen “hanging out, goofing off, showing off, smoking cigarettes, doing their hair and whatever teens did,” Lisa Chalif, the curator of the Hecksher Museum of Art, said of the subjects featured in the exhibit, “Coming of Age in America.”

The exhibit, which is on display from Jan. 14 to March 25 at the Huntington museum, features the photography of Joseph Szabo, who taught art and photography at Malverne High School from 1972 to 1999 and at the International Center of Photography in New York City from 1979 to 2000.

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Szabo was born in Toledo, Ohio but moved out east to study photography at the Pratt Institute in New York. Shortly after he received his masters in fine arts in 1968, he began teaching in Malverne at the age of 28, but quickly noticed that his students were “disinterested and disengaged,” Chalif told Patch. “So he started photographing the students and made a connection with them through the camera.”

He began by shooting them in the classroom and in the hallways, then outside on the football field and around the school grounds. Pretty soon the students began inviting him to their homes and parties, something that “wouldn’t happen today,” Chalif said, but that enabled him to truly capture the teenage spirit.

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“The camera broke down the barrier and made the students feel important,” she added. "That’s how he connected to them.”

The New York Times likened the subjects in Szabo's photographs to characters from the 1980s movie, “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” in an article published last week, saying, "The emphasis on sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll is there, although some of the elements are softened in Mr. Szabo’s work."

The film's director, Cameron Crowe, actually wrote the introduction for Szabo's latest book of photography, titled Teenage

"We see ourselves in his photographs," states the introductary panel for Szabo's exhibit, explaining how his work not only documents the specific lives of suburban teenagers in the 1970s and 80s, but also presents "a nostalgic portrait of those tumultuous years between childhood and adulthood" that everyone can relate to. Looking at them, others will recall their own memories of first loves, classic rock, hanging out and all the fun and angst of their high school years.

Now in his late 60s and retired, Szabo lives in Amityville but stills stays in touch with many of his former students, who attended the opening night of his exhibit on Jan. 14.

“There were a lot of students…it was sort of like a reunion for them,” Chalif said.

In addition to the high school photos, the exhibit at Hecksher Museum features more of Szabo’s social-documentary-style photography including images shot of sun bathers at Jones Beach, young fans at Rolling Stones concerts and two from his “Hometown” collection, which focuses on suburban street scenes.

This is his first retrospective exhibit, Chalif said, but Szoba’s work is also part of the permanent collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MOMA, Yale, the International Center of Photography, the Brooklyn Museum, the Center for Creative Photography in Arizona, the Bibliotheque National in Paris, France, and the George Eastman House Museum in Rochester.

His most well-known photograph, titled “Priscilla,” appeared on the cover of Dinosaur Jr.’s album, “Green Mind,” which was released in 1991.

For more information about the exhibit click here.


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