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."
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