Sweetheart Roller Skating Rink is a royal road to that special time in 1972-1973—when the love generation in America was at its height. The U.S. was reeling from years of war and turbulent social change and progress, but the early 70s was still a time of innocence and exploration. Sweetheart shows us the joyful vigor, fashion, and play of that young crowd searching for fun, escape, and identity in a roller rink on the outskirts of Tampa, Florida and reveals, in a candid and clear-eyed way, a time that you only thought you knew. The photographic gaze of the twenty-five-year-old Yates is exceptional. Freshly returned from his tour of military service, Yates was still young enough to understand and relate to this crowd but no longer part of their world. There is a raw power of deep seeing here. His camera and stance toward his subjects assumes nothing. And therefore it reveals everything.