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84 Intimate Portraits Of 1970s Rebellious Youth Captured By High School Teacher
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Before Joseph Szabo was a world renown photographer, he was a teacher at Malverne High School in Long Island. And on his first days at the job he figured that he's gonna need something special to catch the attention of his pupils. So he brought a camera into class...
"I never had any agenda with my photography – it was never a money-making thing, it was just about connecting with young people – and so I think my photographs have a sort of authentic or genuine quality that a lot of people seem able to relate to," Joseph told Huck Magazine. "I have always tried to capture these very personal moments, in an honest way, to show people doing exactly what they’re doing. They could just be sitting on the school steps smoking a cigarette or they could be hanging out of a car door waving their hands and saying, ‘This is the last day of school and I’ll never come back here again!’ They could be jumping in the air with excitement because of the music they’re listening to or they could be like one of my all-time favorites Priscilla – the little girl smoking at Jones Beach – who expresses something about girlhood as well as something about a certain kind of maturity and experience."
"All these subjects and moments mean so much to me. They helped me understand people and allowed me to connect with them over the years. I hope they mean something to other people too."
More info: Joseph Szabo
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I always used to wonder if the girl in the background was trying to copy her pose. :)
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I started smoking when I was 9. Stole cigarettes from my parents and walked around thinking I was cool. Seeing this pic shows just how stupid I looked at the time. Now 54 with COPD... if only I could go back and have a chat with my younger self lol
smoking is not "cool" stop romanticized cancer and nicotine.
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Powerful photo. So don't you under estimate the strength of a young lady.
Smoking is a weakness (and I speak as an ex smoker)... how is that a sign of "strenght"? LOL
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This was also when it was ok that pregnant women smoked. My mom smoked while pregnant with me. I smoked for years, luckily I quit years ago
My mom smoked when pg with me too- (1960's) I always wondered if that was why I took up smoking too.. SO thankful I was able to quit!
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If only we knew back then what we know now about the dangers of cigs. Excellent photo.
This is what it took to be rebellious in the 70s? Today's kids are smoking crack and catching a quickie in the bathroom before English.
Crack is ten years ago now it's meth and Chinese fentonal
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Ironic that these shorts were acceptable in the 70s, but the next Bored Panda article is about a girl who recently got in trouble at school because her shorts were shorter than the length of her arms (when by her side.) Who is making these current rules? People who grew yoo in the 70s, maybe?@
Some of those fashion items are so vintage. It would be fun that those glasses came back into trendy :D
Wait, I thought the photographer was just a teacher??!! How did he get into their rooms?
This guy wears a t-shirt of the German metal band Warlock. This band was formed in 1982.
"We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can."
I was a troublemaker of sorts but Sister Christian in the center there would be getting anonymous poetry in her locker .
