A 60's Small Town High School

A small town in Oklahoma was a great place to grow up. This anthology of photographs contrasts the stark and shocking images presented in Larry Clark's book "Tulsa," published in 1971. This collection of rediscovered negatives from the early sixties was taken in Bristow, only 30 miles from Clark's Tulsa ofdrugs, sex, and violence. Instead, these are the images I created as a teen learning to photograph, using schoolmates as, mostly willing, subjects. The contrast is almost that of a 50's family television show verses the grit of that turbulent era.
Students going about the daily business of high and junior high school with class plays, sports, meetings, and a few images of socializing in the community are seen here as they came out of that old storage box in the attic. Scratches, dust, stains, and discoloration are the evidence of the passingyears, as are the wrinkles on the visages of these same people if you meet them today at 50-year class reunions. This is the Vietnam War generation before the war got into its full destructive swing. These young people lived in an innocent state broken only by their occasional rambunctious misadventures of growing up. Around them, the country was set up for a revolutionary series of losses, demonstrations, and norm-shattering changes.