Remember in American Graffiti when the leader of the Pharoah's (Bo Hopkins) catches Curt ( Richard Dreyfuss) sitting on the hood of a friend's De Soto or at the Hop when Laurie (Cindy Williams) is dancing with Steve (Ron Howard) well, here they are, the All-American teenagers, in real life captured by Joseph Sterling's camera five decades ago. This fascinating collection was originally created as a thesis for his entry to the graduate programme in Chicago's Institute of Design and some appeared in a 1961 issue of Aperture featuring the Institute.
The hundred photos were taken in Chicago and do a good job, I think, of capturing the feel of teen life back then. The cars, girls, fashion, music, school, sex, sport and of course relationships all get a look in. Perhaps missing were some photos of them in their rooms at home with all the visual bric-a-brac that obviously identifies this soon to be adult group.
The photos are either half or one to a page with a few spread wide but they are all gutsy, strong black and white images presented with an interesting flow through the pages of close-ups and medium shots. The book's production is perfect: printed with a 200 screen on good matt art paper by the German printers Cantz'sche.
