Joseph Szabo

Joseph Szabo is an American teacher, photographer and author who studied photographer in the sixties then taught photography in a Long Island High School from the early seventies to the late nineties and then at the International Centre of Photography in NYC since late in the seventies. Szabo used his teen-age students as models and subjects for the past twenty five years of his career and has managed to perfectly capture the ambivalence of that time of life. Due to the fact he practiced as a High School teacher for so long he knew how to handle his students pretentions, passions and confusions. Szabo was also able to understand how students acted up and put on certain behaviours and misbehaviours to shield or project how they were feeling. In 1978 Joseph Szabo's collection Almost Grown was published by Harmony Books and helped him receive many awards including a Photography fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

I chose to study Joseph Szabo because I love the way he translates the lifestyle of the youth he studies into his work, Szabo is aware of the background of all of his models which enables him to engage in a personal connection with them when he is photographing them, many of their photos exhibit this connection through the open-ness that can be witnessed by the viewers of the photographs once they are published.

 I chose this photograph as I believe Joseph Szabo has exhibited the loneliness of the teenage years of ones life in this image, the girl is left looking on and possibly wondering why and Szabo captures this by making none of the people the main topic of the photograph.

 I chose this photograph as it is a perfect exhibition of the hurry that  young children feel to grow up, they must be old before their time and sometimes this pressure comes from society or the media. Within a crowd this girl stands out as the one who will rebel, the one who demands that adulthood be upon her before she has really even hit her teenage years. The cigarette symbolises the smoking gun of a child who has grown up all too quickly.

I chose to study this photograph from Joseph Szabo's portfolio due to the fact that it shows the difference between the different types of students there are. In modern society it is recognised there are different types of learners.

I chose this photograph the focus on and to emphasize the element of love in teenage years and the importance of this in the teenage part of life. The composition of this photo leads the eye to the door and then to the couple behind the door frame which is the focal point of the photograph.

How I was Influenced...

Josepth Szabo was one of my influences for this topic due to the fact that he studies people, the way they act and their behaviour but also their thoughts and feelings, this links to my study of routine and why people stick to the various routines they have in life. Routines are so repetitive which is a formal element, and are a psychological habit of most human beings. The routine aspect of Joseph Szabo's work comes in when focusing on the routine of life, the things we do in every day life which contribute to us growing up and growing as people. Adolescence is a very important part of life which for most people flies by before they've even realised its gone however in this collection by Joseph Szabo it shows how much teens can focus on wanting to grow up too fast for example the relationship aspect and the picture which depicts the young girl smoking. 

Since studying Joseph Szabo I have decided that I am really interested in focusing on candid shots, I love capturing people just being completely natural and not forcing their actions. However I also love the black and white element to Joseph Szabo's photography and the way he applies lighter tones to his work rather than dark.