Szabo studied photography at the Pratt Institute where he received his MFA. He taught photography at Malverne High School in Long Island, New York from 1972 to 1999 and he continues to teach at the International Centre of Photography. Joseph Szabo is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Visual Arts Fellowship and his work resides in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yale University, The International Centre of Photography and the Bibliotheque National in Paris, amongst others. He currently lives in Amityville, New York with his wife Nancy and Siberian Hus Joseph Szabo is a photographer.