Top image: ‘Air Guitar’ 1978. Photo by Joseph Szabo

In 1978 photographer, and teacher at Pratt Institute, NY,  Joseph Szabo was approached by two of his students with a proposition; to drive them to a Rolling Stones gig in Philadelphia in exchange for a ticket. Szabo leapt at the opportunity and proceeded to capture some of the most enduring images of effervescent teenage youth in his series Rolling Stones Fans.

Surrounded by a crowd of 90,000 gig goers it’s the intimate moments Szabo manages to focus his lens upon that stand out, friends hugging, lovers kissing. The crowd’s energy is palpable, fans dance in muddy puddles, and gaze in delight at their skinny jeaned heroes on stage. At once both nostalgic and timeless the photos resonate with our own memories of adolescence. Creating an intimate insight into late-70s youth culture Szabo’s series embodies the zeitgeist mindset: young, wild and free.

With acclaim coming from renowned names such as Bruce Weber, Sofia Coppola and Grace Coddington, and lauded by Time as “American photography’s best kept secret” Szabo’s candid photography more than stands the test of time.

Recognising the significance of the series, the Michael Hoppen Gallery will be curating an online exhibition of a selection of shots taken by Joseph on that day back in 1978. We caught up with the photographer to hear his story first-hand.

Alex James Taylor: Can you describe to us the background behind the series?
Joseph Szabo: Two of my high school seniors had some tickets to the concert and asked me if I would like to go to, I told them yes thinking it was a great idea. It was in Philadelphia and they didn’t drive so I drove them down there and we stayed in one of the big hotels where all the fans stayed and the next day we entered the concert bright and early and there they were this mass of fans.

AJT: What was the atmosphere like at the gig? Was it a euphoric feeling?
JS: Oh yeah, it was very interesting because that morning it had rained early on and it was kind of grey but when the fans arrived they had all this energy and there was a very euphoric feeling, as you say, lots of positive energy and as more and more people arrived you didn’t know exactly where to look because as a photographer there were good pictures in every direction.

AJT: Yeah I can imagine, how old were you at the time?
JS: I was thirty four.

AJT: Ok, so did you feel a sense of nostalgia for your own youth when you were there?
JS: In a way, because whatever generation you’re in, the music of that generation is vitally important. I grew up mainly in the sixties, so, you know the music in the movie American Graffiti by George Lucas?

AJT: Yeah, that’s a great soundtrack, all that early rock ‘n’ roll like Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry
JS: Exactly, all that music was the music of my teenage years and this was the next generation. Music is very important to everyone’s youth, so in that sense yes there was a sense of nostalgia for me.

AJT: Was this the same time you’d taken photos at a gig?
JS: Yeah, it was the first time. I was always photographing my students around school and people at the beach, but this was the first time at a concert.

AJT: The dominant theme in your work is youth culture, what is it about that period of life that is so photogenic and appealing to you?
JS: First you have to understand that I started photographing teenagers and youth culture because I needed a way to interact with my students, as a teacher. Sometimes teaching a subject isn’t enough, to be connected you have to have some kind of human connection, so that’s why I started photographing them. It later occurred to me that I wanted to understand what these kids were all about, so by taking their photographs I began to know them better and the more I photographed them the more I liked them and I felt ‘on their side’ so to speak.

The two guys I went to the concert with, we pretty much decided to move around freely during the gig, so they went their way and I went my way and we met up towards the end of the concert. I actually saw one of the guys who I went with a few weeks ago and he said that he’d taken about four rolls of film at the concert, I’m still waiting for him to send me the contact sheets so I can see his pictures.

AJT: Cool, so I guess his photos will be more focused on the actual gig, pictures of The Rolling Stones?
JS: Yeah I suppose so, it really was impossible to get really close to the stage because of all the fans but I think they did get closer than I did.

AJT: Sure I bet, do you have a favourite image from the collection?
JS: Yeah, the image I like the best is the one on the cover of the book, it’s titled Delight and the thing I liked about it is that it captures the absolute delight of the young lady in the centre, she has her head thrown back and looks ecstatic, then there’s all the faces around her and all the various interesting expressions. Just about a week ago I got an email from a guy and he said, ‘I’m the guy on the cover of your photograph book, I’m the blonde guy to the right’, and he wanted to know how to get a signed copy of the book so I sent him a signed copy.

AJT: That’s nice, it must be great for him to have this memory of his captured and just accidentally stumbling across it. How often do you take photos now?
JS: I have so many thousands of pictures that for the most part I’m sorting through the achieves and discovering new things that I sort of missed, like with this book, there were so many photographs that I missed the first time so I decided to put them in a book. Through the summertime I’ll go out with my camera to the beach and photograph people, it keeps me going.

Rolling Stones Fans by Joseph Szabo runs on Michael Hoppen Gallery online until 11th June, view the exhibition here. Szabo’s book of the same name is available from PamBooks

All images courtesy the artist and Michael Hoppen Gallery