Dive into Memphis magic with our 26th Annual Southern Music Issue!

From Al Green to Elvis, explore iconic photography and fresh takes on legends through stellar writing from Zandria Robinson, Robert Gordon & more.

Become A Member Shop Login

Floridian Edge

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.





Bill Yates

Bill Yates has been photographing since the age of ten. After serving active duty in the Navy, he graduated from the University of South Florida with a B.A. in Art and Photography, and he received his Master of Fine Arts degree in photography from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1975, studying with Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind. He has also studied with Garry Winogrand and other master fine art photographers.