Joseph Szabo: Hometown - by Phil Bicker (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A slice of 1970s Americana in the suburbs of Long Island, from one of the era's most iconic documentarians

In Hometown, American photographer Joseph Szabo (born 1944) explores the same geographical site as his acclaimed series Teenage and Almost Grown with a slightly different focus: rather than photograph the adolescent population of Long Island, Szabo takes the opportunity to depict the area through its buildings and landscapes.

Taken between the years of 1973 and 1980, Szabo's black-and-white photographs portray a number of scenes that will surely strike an emotional chord with anyone who grew up in the suburbs in mid-century America. In one image, a small house is lit up from the inside on a cloudy evening, sky featureless except for the branches of trees in the distance and the spoked TV antennae affixed to every roof; in another, a young boy steps off the sun-dappled curb to swing a baseball bat at its incoming target, his Chuck Taylors holding steadfast to the carless street.

Semi-autobiographical of the photographer's own youth in spirit if not location, Szabo's photography deftly captures the sleepy lifestyle of the suburbs: quiet, safe and a little bit lonely. For fans of Szabo's other work, Hometown serves as a prequel to the photographer's later series, all characterized by their simultaneous nostalgia and timelessness.

Review Quotes

Takes us back to the golden age of suburbia [...] Looking at Szabo's photographs, you might wish to believe that this America still exists -- if it ever existed at all. Perhaps that is the beauty of these photographs: they preserve hope and faith that the future may be as golden as the warmth of memory."--Miss Rosen "Blind"