The 1950’s and 60’s changed the tide for the American teenager. Movies like Rebel Without A Cause began to define a new generation who could revel in the inbetweenness of their
current state. Not fully grown but no longer a child, this created a unique opportunity for
teenagers to relish in their lack of commitments and the immeasurable freedom of being young
and attractive in a world where beauty is the measure of all things. With endless possibilities
came a restlessness that bred delinquency and mischief. Rejecting previously accepted standards
and forging new identities fueled by the media's glorification of crime, sex, drugs, and alcohol,
the midcentury teenager is a whole new brand of youth. Photographers spin their devilry into
adventure and their boredom into freedom. Cigarettes in hand and deviance sprawled across their
faces, these youngsters are immune to our judgement thanks to the attractiveness of both their
bodies and their brazen freedom. Half a century later, images of these teenagers serve as a
picture of liberation and exalted insurgency against the university attending, desk job working,
suburban living adults they were destined to become. There is a glamour to their otherness that
we can’t help but praise because they embody a doctrine we fiercely covet and yearn to relate to.
Their refusal to conform to the standards of society as they pioneer a new rendering of the
American teenager gives them a sense of eternality as they withstand the forces of their
generation. Frozen in time by the camera, they are suspended in a state of elevated limbo where
their beauty and youth can never run out.
Bruce Davidson, Brooklyn Gang, 1959, Gelatin Silver Print, 2004.220
The young gang members are captured unposed and in action, a blurriness or purposeful angle disguising their identities, leaving them simply as muscular figures with tattooed arms and chiseled faces. This photograph spotlights the subjects’ masculinity and style rather than their actual identities, urging us to forget their true character and recognize them as mavericks of their generation. By keeping the teens relatively unidentifiable by more than their youthfulness, they cannot be located culturally. When their names and stories disappear, each person in the photo ceases to be anything other than this version of himself that embodies the vivacity of the generation. The teenagers most enviable trait of all is that they will never be anything other than a teenager.
The young gang members are captured unposed and in action, a blurriness or purposeful angle disguising their identities, leaving them simply as muscular figures with tattooed arms and chiseled faces. This photograph spotlights the subjects’ masculinity and style rather than their actual identities, urging us to forget their true character and recognize them as mavericks of their generation. By keeping the teens relatively unidentifiable by more than their youthfulness, they cannot be located culturally. When their names and stories disappear, each person in the photo ceases to be anything other than this version of himself that embodies the vivacity of the generation. The teenagers most enviable trait of all is that they will never be anything other than a teenager.
Dennis Stock, James Dean, 1955, Gelatin Silver Print, Magnum Photos
James Dean, the star of Rebel Without a Cause and a generational icon of teen angst, epitomizes the concept of forever young. Pictured here with both a cigarette and a book of poetry in hand, not only does he manifest the glorious idea of defiance to social conformity but he elevates the perception as something more introspective than mere rebellion. His tragic death at the age of 24 proves the finitude of even the young and beautiful, yet simultaneously does the complete opposite by preserving him as an eternal picture of youthful beauty and contempt.
James Dean, the star of Rebel Without a Cause and a generational icon of teen angst, epitomizes the concept of forever young. Pictured here with both a cigarette and a book of poetry in hand, not only does he manifest the glorious idea of defiance to social conformity but he elevates the perception as something more introspective than mere rebellion. His tragic death at the age of 24 proves the finitude of even the young and beautiful, yet simultaneously does the complete opposite by preserving him as an eternal picture of youthful beauty and contempt.
Bruce Davidson, Teenage Couple Smoking at Kitchen Table, 1959, Gelatin Silver Print,
Carnegie Hall Collection
The background elements of this photograph place it clearly in its time. The Norge
refrigerator, an old fashioned tea kettle atop a dated stove, and scalloped cabinets are all
characteristics of a 50’s home and locate the image historically. However, if all that was
removed, there would be nothing left to place this photograph in the 1950’s. The look on the
young man’s face suggests a raw adoration, a type of timeless love that existed before and after
the photo was taken, whether or not this relationship actually did. Completely contrasting that is
the impassive presence of the girl who seems more interested in the cigarette than the boy who
cannot take his eyes off her. There is a recklessness between them that looks like pure anarchic
fun, as if they have a spirit that time cannot fade because, pictured here, they're young and
limitless.
Larry Clark, Untitled , 1963, Gelatin Silver Print, FOAM Amsterdam
This photograph, taken from Larry Clark’s photobook highlighting Oklahoma’s youth culture entitled Tulsa, is simultaneously horrifying and fascinating because of the explicit juxtaposition. A teenager father with a cigarette in one hand and his baby in the other breaks every natural rule we have and as much as we want to ridicule him, we can’t deny the fact that there is something almost enviable about the boy’s impenitence. We look upon this subject with a surface level indignance but a shameful jealousy hidden below. Wouldn’t it be nice to care so little? There is an inherent freedom to this level of defiance that allows the teenager captured in the photograph to surpass his time and exist with the same detached sentiment today as he did in 1963.
This photograph, taken from Larry Clark’s photobook highlighting Oklahoma’s youth culture entitled Tulsa, is simultaneously horrifying and fascinating because of the explicit juxtaposition. A teenager father with a cigarette in one hand and his baby in the other breaks every natural rule we have and as much as we want to ridicule him, we can’t deny the fact that there is something almost enviable about the boy’s impenitence. We look upon this subject with a surface level indignance but a shameful jealousy hidden below. Wouldn’t it be nice to care so little? There is an inherent freedom to this level of defiance that allows the teenager captured in the photograph to surpass his time and exist with the same detached sentiment today as he did in 1963.
Joe Scherschel, Teenagers walking on their hands down the street , 1960-06, Gelatin Silver
Print, Life Photo Collection
There is a house and a car in the background making this appear to be a normal city street. However, what the teenagers are doing is far from normal. The man in the background looks upon them with judgement but they continue to carry out their bold fun. In this case, the teenagers are defiant in the sense that they are acting younger rather than older. They are refusing to be mature. The fact that their shoes are on their hands shows that they are not just simply doing handstands in the street, they planned this act of childlike spite. Less immature and more just lighthearted and silly, these teens show that a level of innocence can still be retained as time and life goes on.
There is a house and a car in the background making this appear to be a normal city street. However, what the teenagers are doing is far from normal. The man in the background looks upon them with judgement but they continue to carry out their bold fun. In this case, the teenagers are defiant in the sense that they are acting younger rather than older. They are refusing to be mature. The fact that their shoes are on their hands shows that they are not just simply doing handstands in the street, they planned this act of childlike spite. Less immature and more just lighthearted and silly, these teens show that a level of innocence can still be retained as time and life goes on.
Edward Sturr, Chicago, 1965, 1965, Gelatin Silver Print, Art Institute of Chicago
Faces fully bared and eyes looking directly into the camera, the subject’s identities are finally somewhat apparent. The two boys in the front are differentiable and distinct. They are not dressed plainly or alike. These faces are irreplaceable. Seated in this shiny car, they encapsulate “cool” in a very nonchalant way. They appear to be real people who really existed unlike most of the beings in the other images who look like sample models. If cropped, the picture could almost retain that documentary sense. However, the car puts a crack in that reality. By viewing them from the window of the car, it feels as if we are looking at a picture within a picture. This extended split, separated by two lenses rather than one, stops us from making the full human connection we must have to walk away from this image and leave the boys in 1965. Their coolness so perfectly framed lasts far beyond that time.
Faces fully bared and eyes looking directly into the camera, the subject’s identities are finally somewhat apparent. The two boys in the front are differentiable and distinct. They are not dressed plainly or alike. These faces are irreplaceable. Seated in this shiny car, they encapsulate “cool” in a very nonchalant way. They appear to be real people who really existed unlike most of the beings in the other images who look like sample models. If cropped, the picture could almost retain that documentary sense. However, the car puts a crack in that reality. By viewing them from the window of the car, it feels as if we are looking at a picture within a picture. This extended split, separated by two lenses rather than one, stops us from making the full human connection we must have to walk away from this image and leave the boys in 1965. Their coolness so perfectly framed lasts far beyond that time.
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