Almost Grown

Almost Grown is a celebration of teen-age experience: the years of restless desire and blossoming sexuality; the world of high school, parking lots, and street corners; and the uniquely American culture in which all of us have grown up. It is a record of photographs and poetry that combines the talents of an adult photographer and a group of almost-adult poets who were asked to tell a picture's story as their own. The result is an unusual collaboration between teacher and teenager, a funny and romantic look at teenagers looking at themselves.

Theirs is a world rarely witnessed by parents. Here is what kids do together - at the beach of the drive-in, during and after school - what they themselves describe as "doing nothing" because it is neither work nor play.

In Szabo's ninety photographs and twenty-five poems written by teenagers in Alan Ziegler's writing workshops, Almost Grown dramatizes and clarifies adolescence, making it familiar, sensual, and charged with the shock of recognition.