
Before red solo cups and Girls Gone Wild seeped their way into popular culture, photographer Keith McManus spent 11 years documenting spring breakers in Daytona Beach, Florida.

The series, titled Rites of Spring, captures the glory of sea, sex and sun in black and white photographs taken between 1982 and 1993.

McManus said he focused on the yearly ritual because there are few rites of passage remaining in modern American culture.

While his photos have taken on a romantic view of yesteryear, he said: 'One of the things people might consider a rite of passage was this spring break thing.

'It’s not very profound as an activity, but… if that’s what you got, that’s what you do.'

McManus said he went back to Daytona year after year to explore the depths of a long-term project.

The photographer, who his student described as 'quiet' and 'unassuming' in an NPR interview in 2013, said he walked along the beach with his Leica cameras, and shot his subjects unabashedly.

He said: 'The worst possible thing is to sneak around and try and take pictures. And for some reason, and I can't really explain it, the more open I am about it the more invisible I become.'

Keith McManus spent 11 years documenting spring breakers in Dayton, Florida to explore a long term photography project

McManus said he focused on the yearly ritual because there are few rites of passages remaining in modern American culture

While his photos have taken on a romantic view of yesteryear, he flatly shared his views on spring break, saying: 'It's not very profound as an activity'

McManus said in an NPR interview: 'I don't think still photography is very good at answering questions. More often it poses questions, and I think that's one of the most endearing qualities of still photography'

McManus would walk along the beach with his Leica cameras to capture naturalistic portraits of young people. He said: 'For some reason, and I can't really explain it, the more open I am about it the more invisible I become'

While many of the photos in Rites of Spring show the chaos and energy of big crowds, McManus also managed to capture the quiet, private worlds between people that exist very much in public

McManus is based in Philadelphia, and teaches photography as a visiting lecturer at the Rochester Institute of Technology in upstate New York. Pictured, a woman brands a sign declaring: 'You are headed for hell!'

Daytona Beach has remained a spring break hot spot, although the city has tried to shed its hedonistic image of booze and crime to rebrand itself as a family-friendly vacation destination