Priscilla. 1969
gelatin silver print

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Kissing, Jones Beach. 1981
gelatin silver print

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3 Guys, 3 Girls. 1989
gelatin silver print

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Jesse at Jones Beach. 1983
gelatin silver print

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Beached Bikini. 1989
gelatin silver print

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Kelly. 1989
gelatin silver print

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The Triangle. 1989
gelatin silver print

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Today is typically one of those days I would like to spend on a beach. Doing nothing. Apart having fun. Even if we are not exactly on a beach, we have these photographs by JOSEPH SZABO, which turn a captive eye to the urban masses who came out to celebrate their weekends, holidays and summers.

American photographer JOSEPH SZABO studied photography at the Pratt Institute where he received his MFA in 1968 and went on to teach photography at Malverne High School in Long Island and at the International Center of Photography in New York City for over 20 years. His favourite subject is adolescence – the all too familiar, twilight time of life between childhood and young adulthood- which he documented for 25 years. Remarkable!

Called the “people’s palace by the sea”, Jones Beach is still a unique space very different from the commercial appeal of Coney Island or the privileged seclusion of the Hamptons and also one of the America’s busiest beaches . On this democratic stretch of sand and ocean class, race, and other potential divisions were temporarily forgotten and SZABO’s sympathetic lens was there to capture it all.

And good news: M+B gallery in Los Angeles is presenting “Jones Beach” photographs until August 14, 2010.