The US in the '70s

[paulfitz76]

The most telling change I know is documented right here on RFF. Frank's pictures of the girls at various places/beaches on Lake Ontario taken today would have been hard to do back then. A lot of the beaches were closed due to pollution. Especially Lake Erie.

I think the natural environment is much better now, but the economic environment is perhaps another question.

I'm glad these images got made and are being released to the public. Look at them and draw your own conclusion.

 

[Jason Sprenger]

I suspect there's just as much pollution in the world, likely more. The junk has simply been relocated/outsourced to the exploitable... er... uh... developing world where it's out of sight and out of mind.

 

[TXForester]

A mixed bag. Some of of it was unclear. For instance many shots dealt with environmental degradation. One of those shots was balloon logging. As a forester, I take issue with "all logging is bad." 🙂

 

[SolaresLarrave]

I like these images. A lot. Very telling about the "good, ole times." There's nothing intrinsically bad with these times.

 

[steelydam]

the only thing i missed from the pix, is the plane flying low, not that i condone the noise but i have been wanting to take pictures of female models with low flying planes.

Don't know where you live but when I lived in San Diego up until the mid 90s there was a multilevel public parking garage right in the approach of incoming jets where if you were on the top/open air level, it felt like you could touch them. Might be worth checking into if you are in that general area. Then again post 9-11 might have become off limits.

 

[Contarama]

I frigging miss the 70's and all of the apostrophes that came with it... 🙂

 

[Tom hicks]

I grew up in Dallas Tx and it wasn't like that . Life was good . Like other have said it wasn't as bad as those pictures made it . The perspective in which most of the images were taken was intentional to make it seem worse than it was. The only hard part for me was being 18 years old and not having enough gas to feed my 73 Z28 . Dang gas rationing .(odd or even days ) One other thing , most every teenager had a JOB.

 

[celluloidprop]

As of today, Dallas still has some of the worst air quality in the United States.

It's easy to say things weren't bad at the time, but environmentally it was unquestionably a disaster (things are somewhat better today in much of the US, but obviously much worse in large parts of the world), but you could say the same of pictures of the American South in the '50s. My father's experience in middle-class San Jose during that time was rather more positive than the overall situation.

 

[Pablito]

The Danny Lyons images really stand out.

 

[Contarama]

Yeah and Dr Pepper came in glass bottles and we still used DDT!

MADE IN USA used to be commonplace in the seventies!

 

[redisburning]

fantastic images.

I know that we do not automatically assume an image is the truth. I wasn't around in the 70s but a lot of these images still evoke images of cities I have seen in my own life. The second image... absolutely brilliant. If I could produce a few of these images, just one of them, in my entire life, I would feel vindicated for picking up a camera.

 

[it'sawhat?]

AHHHHH the 70's. I graduated high school in 75 and other than disco and platform shoes life was good generally pretty good. As an aside I was born in Alabama raised in Georgia both Carolinas and Tennessee.

 

[I Love Film]

(deleted, accidental double post)

 

[bigeye]

Not enough big lapels shown.

I remember the cigarette smoke on trains, smog on the highway and trash along the road. But, the countryside was a lot emptier and quieter.

.

 

[David Murphy]

This is a distorted "view" of the 70's. Americans were far better off then than now. We were an industrial power-house and the envy of the world. Of course many will disagree, but I did live through that era (and the 50's and 60's too for that matter).

 

[whtchocla7e]

Lovely images. This is why I photograph in the first place. One day, I hope to look back at my images and feel what I'm feeling now looking through this set.

Oh, and If I could only emulate that film look with digital today.. Perhaps I wouldn't have to wait 30 years to enjoy my images.

 

[gb hill]

I was a teenager in the 70's.😎 20's during the 80's, I feel I got robbed.😀
As for the photo's it's no wonder many in 50's + have cancer. We have done a heck of a job of cleaning up the mess but still have a way to go. I also noticed that the photo's taken back then have such a feel to them. The digital & even film photo's of today lack that feel.

 

[Steve M.]

Those were the best times of my life!

People rose up and questioned authority, experimented w/ changing their consciousness, the art world was alive and happening w/ abstract expressionism and Andy Warhol's Pop Culture, sex came (way) out of the closet, people got fed up with corporations starting wars for profit, racism was exposed for the dirty thing that it was, strong leaders were being brought forward to challenge conventional thinking that was corrupt and death bound, The Electric Koolaid Acid Test, Owsley, Leary, Janis Joplin, Cassius Clay, Richard Alpert became Baba Ram Dass, a nationwide revolt against the horror of the Vietnam Police Action, and on and on and on. Guess how one sees this is whether you're part of the solution, or part of the problem. The Atlantic????

 

[Pentudlian]

If a 50-something Englishman may be permitted a comment: what fabulous photos, as both photos and reminders of a time long ago. What a fabulous and gritty place the industrial USA seemed to we Liverpudlians: Alice Cooper, Starsky & Hutch, Pittsburgh, Detroit and, of course, NYC.

 

[Pablito]

This is a distorted "view" of the 70's.

Not distorted in the least - just not comprehensive. The point of the images was to look at environmental issues. Americans may have been better off then, but that does not mean environmental issues weren't worse. Now you can find pollution like this, and much worse, in China....