Master photographers celebrate the teenager phenomenon
- Text by Shelley Jones
- Photography by Various, see captions.
Photographers are obsessed with youth. (No awards for that incredible insight.) In fact, we’re all obsessed with youth. But there’s something about adolescence – that wild, emotional transition between innocence and cynicism – that captures our imagination like nothing else.
Inspired by this universal muse, The Photographers’ Gallery in London has curated a show We Could Be Heroes that “looks at the development of youth culture and the bittersweet rites of passage towards adulthood over the last century”.
The show features the work of incredible photographers – Bruce Davidson, Ed van der Elsken, Bert Hardy, Karen Knorr and Olivier Richon, Jacques Henri Lartigue, Roger Mayne, Chris Steele-Perkins, Anders Petersen, Al Vandenberg, Weegee and Tom Wood – all exploring what it means to be young and wide-eyed.
The images are striking in their ability to translate emotion. Just go on Tumblr for a second and you’ll find millions of images of young people in teen clichés (Larry Clark, I blame you), but the photographs in this show are the result of rigorous, immersive photojournalism – like Bruce Davidson who embedded himself among members of the Brooklyn gang the Jokers and Ed van der Elsken who got deep with the reckless hedonism of Parisian bohemia in the 1950s – and it shows.
Being a teen is nuts. Doris Lessing says it well in her 1962 novel The Golden Notebook: “Because I was permanently confused, dissatisfied, unhappy, tormented by inadequacy, driven by wanting towards every kind of impossible future, the attitude of mind described by ‘tolerantly amused eyes’ was years away from me. I don’t think I really saw people then, except as appendages to my needs. It’s only now, looking back, that I understood, but at the time I lived in a brilliantly lit haze, shifting and flickering according to my changing desires. Of course, that is only a description of being young.”
We Could Be Heroes is at The Photographers’ Gallery, London, February 6 – April 12, 2015
Latest on Huck
This erotic zine dismantles LGBTQ+ respectability politics
Zine Scene — Created by Megan Wallace and Jack Rowe, PULP is a new print publication that embraces the diverse and messy, yet pleasurable multitudes that sex and desire can take.
Written by: Isaac Muk
As Tbilisi’s famed nightclubs reawaken, a murky future awaits
Spaces Between the Beats — Since Georgia’s ruling party suspended plans for EU accession, protests have continued in the capital, with nightclubs shutting in solidarity. Victor Swezey reported on their New Year’s Eve reopening, finding a mix of anxiety, catharsis and defiance.
Written by: Victor Swezey
Los Angeles is burning: Rick Castro on fleeing his home once again
Braver New World — In 2020, the photographer fled the Bobcat Fire in San Bernardino to his East Hollywood home, sparking the inspiration for an unsettling photo series. Now, while preparing for its exhibition, he has had to leave once again, returning to the mountains.
Written by: Miss Rosen
Ghais Guevara: “Rap is a pinnacle of our culture”
What Made Me — In our new series, we ask artists and rebels about the forces and experiences that have shaped who they are. First up, Philadelphian rap experimentalist Ghais Guevara.
Written by: Ghais Guevara
Gaza Biennale comes to London in ICA protest
Art and action — The global project, which presents the work of over 60 Palestinian artists, will be on view outside the art institution in protest of an exhibition funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Written by: Cyna Mirzai
Ragnar Axelsson’s thawing vision of Arctic life
At the Edge of the World — For over four decades, the Icelandic photographer has been journeying to the tip of the earth and documenting its communities. A new exhibition dives into his archive.
Written by: Cyna Mirzai