Artist: Bill Yates

Project: Sweetheart Roller Skating Rink

Description: In the early 1970s, photographer Bill Yates spent seven months documenting the patrons of the Sweetheart Roller Skating Rink in central Florida. For forty years, the project sat forgotten until, at the urging of his family, Yates began to process the negatives. His black-and-white images echo those of the master photographers Garry Winogrand and Diane Arbus; in candid scenes of life at the roller rink, Yates manages to convey the unexpectedly profound, with a Floridian edge. 

The photographs have been exhibited at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans and are being released as a book by Fall Line Press. To learn more about the book (and to donate to the project), visit Yates’s Kickstarter.

Eyes on the South is curated by Jeff Rich. The weekly series features selections of current work from Southern artists, or artists whose photography concerns the South. To submit your work to the series, email Jeff at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..