Joseph Szabo
Jones Beach turns black & white
The Michael Hoppen Gallery in Brompton, London, is exhibiting Joseph Szabo’s Jones Beachphotographs. For the past 30 years, against the backdrop of the Atlantic Ocean, Szabo has captured the melting pot of humanity on one of the America’s busiest beaches. Among the sea of bodies on the New York State beach, Szabo’s camera isolates both rare moments of introspection and unashamed exuberance. Images of tanned muscle men, a catwalk display of beach wear, heavily oiled skin, masses of sprayed hair and shy adolescents reluctantly in swimwear all reveal the dynamics of the beach. These photographs show a city and its tribes, displaced to the coast for the day. Divisions and class boundaries are temporarily forgotten along with inhibitions about body size and shape.
Szabo was born in Toledo, Ohio in 1944. He studied photography at the Pratt Institute where he received his MFA. He taught photography at Malverne High School in Long Island from 1972 – 1999 and has also taught at the International Centre of Photography, New York for over 20 years. Szabo’s first book, Almost Grown(1978), was acclaimed by the American Library Association and faded somewhat into obscurity until it became a cult classic among a generation of young British and American fashion photographers. His second book, Teenage was published in 2003 and is a poignant chronicle of Szabo’s work. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Visual Arts Fellowship and his work resides in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yale University, The International Centre of Photography and the Bibliotheque National in Paris among others. We speak to him here:
Can you tell us a little bit about Jones Beach at that time? What was the vibe?
At that time in the 70s and 80s there were lots of teens, sexual energy and hardly any cameras around at the beach. So people were open to the camera. They were relaxed, not nervous about cameras as they tend to be today with so many people having digital cameras, cell phone cameras etc. The exhibit at the Michael Hoppen Gallery spans 35 years.
Why are all the images black and white? It seems totally fitting – almost like the sun has blanched them of any colour.
When I learned photography in the 60s and 70s it ws all with B&W film and processing. All serious photography was done in B&W. There were no courses that I can recall that taught color photography. Books on serious photography were in B&W. Also, B&W has more of a timeless quality, which I always liked and still prefer.
Why is it that although many of the photos are of semi-naked women, there is no hint of exploitation in them? How does this work compare to the work of modern photographers like Richard Kern, who is clearly a pervert.
I was never interested in exploiting or degrading women or any of my subjects. I saw my subjects as gifts and respected their dignity and beauty. It’s a cheap shot to degrade and exploit women or people. Also, people can pick up on the photographers attitude quickly, they can sense if you are to be trusted or not. Trust is a major component of any success I have in photographing women, friends or strangers.
I would not presume to compare my work with Kern's or anyone else's.
What is it that the beach brings out in people that you seem to have captured?
It seems that the beach brings out all sorts of qualities in people. It bring out personalities, their humour, spontaneity, talent, vulnerability, love, relationships with their friends and families, sensuality and sexuality, strengths, pride, dignity, beauty, openness to be seen in a particular way and their nobility and toughness.
Is this a nostalgic exhibition?
This is more of a mini-retrospective exhibition. Abrams publishers will be publishing a larger and more complete presentation of my work in a book on my Jones Beach photographs for the Fall of 2009.
