“Hurt” (1972) by photographer Joseph Szabo. This limited edition 20″ x 24″ gelatin silver print is featured in the book “Almost Grown” and was the first signed piece by Szabo added to The Michael Aaron Gallagher Fine Art Collection.
World-renowned photographer Joseph Szabo (b. 1944) captured the spirit of mid-20th Century adolescence on film in a way that few other artists were able to achieve. Szabo’s work is a part of the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, the International Center of Photography and the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. He is the author of the photography books “Jones Beach” (2010) and “Rolling Stones Fans” (2007), “Almost Grown” (1978) and “Teenage” (2003) and he was featured in the New York Times. Several celebrities own his photography prints, including Sir Elton John, Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Sofia Coppola, and Bruce Weber. In fact, Szabo’s pictures influenced the cinematography of one of Coppola’s critically acclaimed films. Vogue’s creative director Grace Coddington also drew inspiration from Szabo’s images as she designed fashion photo shoots for the magazine.
One of the showpieces in The Michael Aaron Gallagher Fine Art Collection is a signed, 20″ x 24″ limited edition (#5/10) gelatin silver photograph titled “Hurt” (1972). The picture is featured in Szabo’s book “Almost Grown.” On the surface, “Hurt” seems like a snapshot of a typical moment in high school that other photographers might not even see as artistically significant. But this picture stands out for its energy and the juxtaposition of movement and drama in the scene. Even the title begs the question of whether the subject is OK. Is this the fleeting, overexaggerated emotional response of a teenager or perhaps the aftermath of a sports injury? Either way, the resulting image, with her partially concealed face is memorable and impactful, both for what we see and what we don’t – for what understand and what we cannot.
The Collection also includes a large 24″ x 36″ first edition WAX poster of “Priscilla,” a small 4″ x 6″ printed sticker that was on the label for the poster and a framed CD, which features “Priscilla” on the album cover.
Joseph Szabo‘s iconic photograph titled “Priscilla” (1969), an unknown girl smoking a cigarette on Jones Beach, captured the zeitgeist of the 1960s youth culture in America. The picture became the album cover for the band Dinosaur Jr. and their 1991 record “Green Mind.”
“Priscilla” (1969) photograph by Joseph Szabo. This small 4″ x 6″ print was the poster packaging label for the first edition WAX poster of “Priscilla,” which was the first Szabo piece added to The Michael Aaron Gallagher Fine Art Collection.
In an interview with the Long Island Herald newspaper, Joseph Szabo discussed his most famous photograph and the mystery surrounding it.
“I stepped onto the beach, and she was there for not even a minute,” he said in the interview with Rosanna Weitekamp. “I took one, two shots, looked down at my camera and then up again, and she was nowhere. Not on the beach, not behind me, not on the boardwalk. She was almost like an apparition.”
Whether it is symbolic of a rebellion against innocence or their rarity in the fine art market, photographs depicting girls smoking a cigarette seem to draw high prices in art auctions. In 2012, a print of the “Priscilla” photograph sold at auction for $16,250, which is currently the record price for a Joseph Szabo piece. That same year, Sally Mann‘s photograph of her daughter Jessie titled, “Candy Cigarette” (1989) sold for $266,500. In 2009, Mary Ellen Mark‘s documentary style photograph titled, “Amanda and Her Cousin Amy” (1990), which shows Amanda smoking a cigarette, sold for $2,400. The Tyler Shields photograph “Girl in the Window” (2015), which shows a girl posing with a cigarette in her hand is listed between $10,000-$25,000 and his photograph “Girl in the Pond” (2016), which also features a girl holding a cigarette is listed for $10,000.
The Legacy of a Master Photographer
As an art teacher at Long Island’s Malverne High School in New York, Joseph Szabo had a front row seat to the highs and lows of his students. Whether it was romantic kisses in the hallway or spirited party scenes off school grounds, Szabo’s documentary-style photography pealed back the layers of the teenage experience to show the audience a firsthand account of the moments his subjects were experiencing, as if it was through their own eyes. In addition to being granted permission to photograph his students for the school’s yearbook, they also invited him into their personal lives, to attend parties and other social gatherings outside of school, which facilitated the creation of some of his greatest works of art.
What sets a great photographer apart from a good photographer is their ability to blend their technical proficiency with excellent storytelling. It is the right subject at the right moment in time and then the photographer’s recognition of the necessity of preserving those passing shadows where they intersect. Szabo is a master at telling a story in each of his photographs. His pictures not only provide historical context as a visual documentation of the period in which they were taken, but they also achieve a sense of timelessness that transcends their era. Great art inspires great artists. And Joseph Szabo’s photography has certainly left its mark on the fine art landscape.
To see more of Joseph Szabo’s work, visit his official website at: https://josephszabophotos.com
To view more original works in The Michael Aaron Gallagher Fine Art Collection click here. For information about works that have been donated to the collection click here.