Who? Teenagers, and their bold tendency towards cultural subversion, have long been the subject of exploration in art, literature and film. Now, a group exhibition at Print Sales Gallery showcases the work of key photographers, active over the last century, whose images offer an unflinching look at these transitional years. Among those featured are famed photojournalist Weegee, long-standing Magnum photographer Bruce Davidson, and London-based contemporary photographer Karen Knorr.
Al Vandenberg, Untitled from the series On a Good Day, 1975Courtesy of Eric Franck Fine Art
What? The show is brilliantly curated, offering captivating insight into teenage subcultures across the decades. Visitors take a heady trip to 1950s Paris, where a delightfully decadent brand of bohemia is in full swing, courtesy of Ed van der Elsken's Love on the Left Bank; while elaborately structured quiffs, velvet trimmed drape jackets and platform creepers abound in Chris Steele-Perkins' iconic series The Teds – a mishmash of rough and ready portraiture and more naturalistic group snapshots (at parties and dances) of the 1970s Teddy Boys. Knorr and Olivier Richardson's joint series, Punk (1977), offers a wonderfully candid look at London's blossoming punk scene, complete with angular haircuts, suspenders and PVC skirts; while Roger Mayne's powerful shots of west London in the 1950s bring the show full circle, depicting members of the first generation to be identified as 'teenagers'. Captured in all their youthful exuberance, these pioneers of "post-war optimism and freedom" stand in marked contrast to the urban dereliction they inhabited.
Karen Knorr and Olivier Richon, Untitled from the series PunCourtesy of Eric Franck Fine Art
Why? The exhibition is a fantastic celebration of the youthful urge to turn away from tradition, to seek out new attitudes and subcultures that better reflect the collective spirit of an emerging generation. What is particularly notable in this retrospective look at teens on film, is how little this insouciance and quest for rebellion has changed over time; hairstyles come and go, skirt lengths creep up and down, but the attitude remains the same. This is perfectly encapsulated in Weegee's shot of a couple passionately making out in a 3-D cinema in 1945 – a timeless embodiment of teenage defiance and lust for life.
