---
title: Coming of Age in America: The Photography of Joseph Szabo
description: The first major retrospective of work by the quintessential photographer of American teenage life opens this week at the Heckscher Museum of Art in Long Island, New York.
canonical: https://time.com/3784873/coming-of-age-in-america-the-photography-of-joseph-szabo/
author: Phil Bicker
article:opinion: false
article:content_tier: free
article:published_time: 2012-01-12T09:00:37.000Z
article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:41:15.288Z
article:section: World
og:title: Coming of Age in America: The Photography of Joseph Szabo
og:description: The first major retrospective of work by the quintessential photographer of American teenage life opens this week at the Heckscher Museum of Art in Long Island, New York.
og:url: https://time.com/3784873/coming-of-age-in-america-the-photography-of-joseph-szabo/
og:site_name: TIME
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og:image:alt: Joseph Szabo
og:type: article
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twitter:title: Coming of Age in America: The Photography of Joseph Szabo
twitter:description: The first major retrospective of work by the quintessential photographer of American teenage life opens this week at the Heckscher Museum of Art in Long Island, New York.
twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b5724861b781ef3/69879bd18e06012d8c45bed0/priscilla-1969.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9
---
# Coming of Age in America: The Photography of Joseph Szabo
by
[Phil Bicker](/author/phil-bicker/)
## Phil Bicker
Jan 12, 2012 9:00 AM CUT
Priscilla, 1969
Priscilla, 1969Joseph Szabo
by
[Phil Bicker](/author/phil-bicker/)
## Phil Bicker
Jan 12, 2012 9:00 AM CUT
[Joseph Szabo](http://www.photosofteenagers.com/ "undefined") has photographed teenagers for the past four decades. His images perfectly capture the nuances and emotions of adolescence, and they document his subjects in moments of uncertainty, reflection, longing, bravado, exuberance and awkwardness as they dip a toe into the waters of adulthood.
As Cornell Capa wrote in the foreword of Szabo’s first book, _Almost Grown_, “Szabo’s camera is sharp, incisive, and young, matching his subjects. One can use many adjectives: revealing, tender, raucous, sexy, showy… in Szabo’s hands, the camera is magically there, the light is always available, the moment is perceived, seen, and caught.”
Over the last 40 years, Szabo has quietly built a reputation and cult following as the quintessential photographer of the teenager. While he has published books and had gallery shows, an exhibition at the [Heckscher Museum](http://heckscher.org/ "undefined"), in Huntington, New York, that opens this month marks Szabo’s first major retrospective. Appropriately located on Long Island—where the majority of the work was made—the show draws from the photographer’s extensive archive and features images from his four books: _Almost Grown_, _Teenage_, _Rolling Stones Fans_ and _Jones Beach._ Work from his recently rediscovered suburban landscape series _Hometown_ are also on display.
The setting for his first museum show is also significant because Szabo was a young art teacher at Malverne High School, in Long Island, in the early 1970s. He began photographing his disinterested and undisciplined teenage students as a way to connect with them, and Szabo found himself drawn to the kids, gaining a sense of what was happening in their lives. “It was always the emotional aspect I was looking for,” Szabo said in a recent documentary called [_The Joseph Szabo Project_](http://www.thejosephszaboproject.com/ "undefined"). “I wanted them to express who they are. There’s a beauty to that honesty, and I wanted to get below the surface to reflect their lives in a nonjudgmental way.” The resulting body of work, which starts in the classroom before branching out to the school grounds, parties and Jones Beach, is a celebration of teenage experience. Or as Szabo describes it: “The years of restless desire and blossoming sexuality. The world of high school, parking lots and street corners, and the uniquely American culture in which all of us have grown up.”
Szabo’s images are a candid document of coming of age in small towns and suburban America. “You try to capture life in the moment that speaks to you,” he says in the _Joseph Szabo Project_. “They are fleeting—one moment it’s there and then its gone.” His intimate and iconic images are picture-perfect proof of these fleeting moments—memories magically captured and frozen forever.
Coming of Age in America: The Photography of Joseph Szabo _is on display at the Heckscher Museum of Art, Long Island, New York through March 25._
To see more of Joseph Szabo’s work on LightBox, click [here](http://lightbox.time.com/2011/06/27/joseph-szabo-american-photographys-best-kept-secret/#1 "undefined").
Priscilla, 1969 Joseph Szabo
Night Owls, 1971 Joseph Szabo
Anthony and Joanne, 1988 Joseph Szabo
Hurt, 1972 Joseph Szabo
Chris on Sr. Day, 1977 Joseph Szabo
The KISS, 1977 Joseph Szabo
Adrienne, 1976 Joseph Szabo
Girl in the Mirror, 1981 Joseph Szabo
Mid-Year Exam, 1974 Joseph Szabo
Marianne and Mary Kay,1976 Joseph Szabo
Anthony and Terry B, 1977 Joseph Szabo
Caught, 1975 Joseph Szabo
Lori, 1975 Joseph Szabo
Dawn in Her Room, 1985 Joseph Szabo
Tomahawk, 1973 Joseph Szabo
Backstage, 1979 Joseph Szabo
Wild Horses,1979 Joseph Szabo
Friday Night Dance, 1973 Joseph Szabo
Silke and Becky, 1989 Joseph Szabo
Lia and Maura, 1983 Joseph Szabo
Private Moment, 1973 Joseph Szabo
Jones Beach, 1979 Joseph Szabo
Jesse at Jones Beach, 1983 Joseph Szabo
Jones Beach, 1981 Joseph Szabo
Lifeguard's Dream, 1972 All photographs courtesy of the photographer and Gitterman Gallery, NY. Joseph Szabo
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