I, too, went to high school in the late 1970s, and “American Teen” made me nostalgic for what it felt like to hang out back then; This is reinforced by the implicit guarantee that you will find your friends in their usual places between classes or after school and that they will have plenty of time for you. It also reminded me nicely of the kind of low-key, free-to-be-you-and-me androgyny that I associate with that period. In Szabo’s paintings, both boys and girls wear jeans; most of the boys have shoulder-length hair; the clothes are often baggy and layered (oversized sweaters, denim jackets, overalls, plaid shirts over tank tops) and no one seems committed to perfection. This messier, more intimate version of androgyny coexisted in the culture with the more flamboyant gender bending of glam rock. The seventies were fun in that respect. As I flipped through the book, I thought of the 1984 song “Androgynous” by the Replacements, with its hopeful lyrics, “Now, something meets boy, something meets girl / They both look the same, so happy with this world / Same hair revolution, unisex evolution / Tomorrow, who’s gonna be fussing?”
The fuss about gender identity, young people and their concerns has only increased in recent years. Szabo’s photographs, by contrast, are remarkably free of anxiety and judgment. These are reminders of how cool young people can be, in their own tribe, in their own time. ♦