Lifeguard
Camaraderie and community on Jones Beach
In the late 1960s, the photographer and photography teacher Joseph Szabo first discovered Jones Beach state park in Nassau County, New York. Since then, Szabo has struck up friendships with the lifeguards on duty at what is surely among the busiest beaches in the world, finding them as fascinating as the bodies they watch over. Restful and alert, solitary and part of a team, aloof and involved, the lifeguard is a unique character and a local celebrity on the beach.
Joseph Szabo: Lifeguard documents the photographer’s encounters and friendships with the Jones Beach lifeguards in photographs taken between 1990 and 2015.
Portraits in the most expansive sense of the word, the images in this volume illustrate the day-to-day preparation, teamwork, relaxation, camaraderie, duty and responsibility in the lives of these figures that Szabo has come to know and respect.
Books from Joe Szabo
Almost Grown
A time of innocence and bursting sexuality, of tenderness and raucousness. Almost Grown celebrates in photographs and poetry the joys and uncertainties of that paradoxical time when we are no longer children and yet are not quite adults.
Rolling Stones Fans
In the mid 1970’s two of my high school students approached me and asked if I would like to see a Rolling Stones Concert. They had the tickets and needed a friend with a car who would drive from Long Island to Pennsylvania.
Jones Beach
Beginning in the early 1970’s, Joseph Szabo started capturing the melting pot of humanity on Jones Beach, one of the busiest beaches in the world with more than six million visitors a year.
Lifeguard
LIFEGUARD documents the photographer’s encounters and friendships with the Jones Beach lifeguards in the photographs taken between 1990 and 2015.