Last summer, kids the world over missed out on the universal heaven/hell experience of summer camp. We couldn't be happier to feature one of our favorite summertime staff picks of all time, 'Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah: Andy Sweet's Summer Camp 1977.' ⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ A companion volume to Andy Sweet's best-selling 'Shtetl in the Sun,' 'Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah' chronicles the summer of 1977 at Camp Mountain Lake, serving up a knowing portrait of the era's fashion, pop culture and frank expressions of adolescent sexuality.⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ Set against the cherished rituals of camp life—from the parade of trunks as 300 campers arrive at Mountain Lake's rural North Carolina setting to the end-of-August Dionysian frenzy of "Color War"—Sweet's photos tell a classic coming-of-age story, one full of awkward crushes, intense friendships and the kind of deep truths that emerge over late-night, campfire-toasted marshmallows.⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ As the camp's photography instructor and one of its counselors, Sweet brings an intimate familiarity to his subject, capturing the rhythms of the camp's daily life through both posed compositions and spontaneous images. By turns nostalgic, poignant and laugh-out-loud funny, this collection includes a foreword by award-winning Miami arts journalist Brett Sokol and an introductory essay by New Yorker staff writer @frynaomifry⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ Published by @letter16press⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ Read more via linkinbio.⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ #andysweet #hellomuddahhellofaddah #hellomudddah #summercamp #70scampphotos #70ssummercamp https://www.instagram.com/p/CQqk02kMlDw/?utm_medium=tumblr

For your summer weekend reading pleasure… we highly recommend this remembrance of awkward summer camp experiences past by Naomi Fry in this week's @newyorkermag — reproduced from 'Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah: Andy Sweet's Summer Camp 1977,' the new photobook from @letter16press⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Fry begins the essay: "When I was a kid growing up in Israel, in the nineteen-eighties, my father’s job as a research scientist sometimes took us to the United States for the summer months. It was there that I first encountered the alien, forbidding rites and rituals of sleepaway camp, though not through personal experience. I was a reticent and bookish child, easily spooked and prone to homesickness, and the idea of leaving the familiar and comforting world of my family to jostle among a bunch of tough-skinned strangers filled me with dread. What if I were excluded, or ignored, or laughed at? In the country where I came from, you stuck close to home until you were made to leave it, at eighteen, for the Army, and, even then, Israel’s almost comical smallness made it impossible to stay away for too long, even if you wanted to. As far as I was concerned, even day camp, the relatively tame waters of which I dipped my toe into for a couple summers, felt like a social and psychological stretch, with its lip-synching talent shows and Madonna-look-alike contests, its aggressively noisy bus trips and brash talk of lip-gloss brands and crushes and training bras. I preferred to experience shiny, scary, titillating American culture from the safe distance of the living-room couch, watching “General Hospital” and 'Family Feud' and eating Lays potato chips. I might have been bored, but at least I was unscathed…" ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Read more via linkinbio.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ @frynaomifry #andysweet #hellomuddahhellofaddah #hellomuddah #summercamp #70ssummercamp #70sstyle⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ https://www.instagram.com/p/CDpGHMSJM7n/?igshid=i80tbr2k1g29

Congrats @letter16press on this substantial review of 'Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah: Andy Sweet's Summer Camp 1977' (and 'Shtetl in the Sun') @jewishreviewbooks⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Jesse Bernstein writes, "The existence of enough of Sweet’s art to make even a single book is extraordinary. After his death, his family had deposited his negatives and some prints in a high-end art archive that lost them in a move. His large-format prints, stored under his mother’s bed, gradually lost their color as the years passed. Then, in 2006, a few hundred smaller-format work prints were found in a family storage space. His sister’s husband, a graphic designer, was able to restore them, bringing back their vibrant colors… ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Sweet didn’t just shoot in color; he shot in the idiom of people’s actual lives. In the art world of the late 1970s, color photography was still considered gaudy, mass-market eye-candy that was better suited for advertising or family portraits than for an exhibition. But look at his shots of the color war at Camp Mountain Lake, or of paunchy, tanning yentas stuffed into swimsuits in hues most commonly found among rare Amazonian birds, and you see the fault in such thinking. The color is part of the story.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ 'I want my photos to be truthful accounts,' Sweet once wrote. 'The color is a device to include more reality.' What more truthful account can there be of life at a Jewish summer camp in 1977 than two long-haired Jewish adolescents wearing T-shirts with images of the Fonz and Elvis Presley? The King died at the end of that summer, and I found myself wondering whether the boy felt like wearing the shirt afterward…" ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Read more via linkinbio.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Please order from your local independent #bookstorehero — many are reopening or offering curbside pickup! ⁠⠀⁠⠀⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ #andysweet #andysweetphotolegacy #CampMountainLake #hellomuddahhellofaddah #summercamp #miami #southbeach #ShtetlintheSun #1977⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ ⁠ https://www.instagram.com/p/CDEuYuppnbz/?igshid=1wp8n5syn7pwj

Here is a book to write home about! If you attended summer camp in the 70s, or ever... or your kids did, or were supposed to have... please read on. THE BEST!! Repost @letter16press ・・・ We’re thrilled to announce the release of our newest book of photography: Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah: Andy Sweet's Summer Camp 1977. ⁣ ⁣ A companion volume to last year's Shtetl in the Sun, Andy Sweet's love letter to the colorful Jewish community in late 1970s South Beach, Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah chronicles the summer of 1977 at Camp Mountain Lake, serving up a knowing portrait of the era's fashion, pop culture, and frank expressions of adolescent sexuality. Set against the cherished rituals of camp life – from the parade of trunks as 300 campers arrive at Mountain Lake’s rural North Carolina setting to the end-of-August Dionysian frenzy of “Color War” – Sweet's photos tell a classic coming-of-age story, one full of awkward crushes, intense friendships, and the kind of deep truths that emerge over late night, campfire-toasted marshmallows. By turns nostalgic, poignant, and laugh-out-loud funny, this collection includes an introductory essay by New Yorker magazine staff writer Naomi Fry.⁣ ⁣ Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah: Andy Sweet's Summer Camp 1977 is being released on May 26. Link to order now — with a pre-sale 25% discount — is in our bio.⁣ ⁣ ⁣ ⁣ ⁣ #letter16press #shtetlinthesun #thelastresort #andysweet #hellomuddahhellofaddah #photobookjousting #summercamp @artbook #naomifry @frynaomifry #camp #miamiphotographer #miamiphotographers #photobook #areyoureadyforthesummer #bookstagram #indiepublishing #summercamps #summercampkids https://www.instagram.com/p/B_r70dTJ_3p/?igshid=5busw30cyswu