2001-06-12 THE BEACH is a thrilling mix

THE BEACH is a thrilling mix: playful pixie, Peter Pan, meets the Olympian Gods on a vast beach. I wonder if the energy and creativity of boys is why they are so widely preferred to girls around the world (especially by women).

I have to be honest--I've never understood the appeal of beaches at all. Strangely, though, I love deserts [which some friends refer to as 'a beach with no ocean']. At any rate, this book may change my mind -- regarding some beaches at least.

While I've seen David Morgan's work for years, it wasn't until the "Global Groove" CD series that I actually paid attention to the photo credits. To say that this book is a real treat for the eyes is an understatement. The photography--all black and white here-- is just magnificent. The images are sensuous, and erotic, but never 'pronographic'; sexy without ever looking 'dirty'; great studies in natural & enhanced lighting, along with the human body in top form.

The pictures are appropriately playful and despite the beefiness of the bodies, never mean, threatening or hard looking (it's that boyish thing again). Like the mythical "peter Pan", the guys in these photos seem to be forever young, and in what is such an odd example of life imitating art, it seems that every year boys get younger while observers like me, go on, inexorably aging. There is a bit of the modern here (the sexy briefs many of the guys are sporting), but really, these pictures evoke the imagery suggested in ancient Greek, Roman and other Classical art, that celebrated, rather than exploited, the beauty of a well maintained body. But unlike Tom Bianchi who recreated the Classical formalism along with the god-like male imagery, BEACH suggests that when no one is looking, even the gods are still boys inside.

While there was no doubt a lot of effort that went into posing and composing for each phot, they somehow all manage to look spontaneouos and candid. And, unlike some of the modeling photography that David Morgan has done, these pictures exude a casual friendliness that is in many ways more effective than some of the more rigidly posed and arranged ad copy [check out the 2X-ist shots].

As stunning as the photography is here, this book does have a minor flaw: the prose. It is as noteworthy for its vapidity and insipidness and thephotography is for its aesthetic beauty and strength. Perhaps that is deliberate: Morgan is a photographer, and prefers that people buy books to see the pictures, rather than to read them. But, whatever the reasons for the bad writing, it can easily be ignored, since th phtots are what this book is really all about.

Taken over a 10 day period in the waning days of summer, BEACH makes for the kind of September one will always remember. Even when all those 'boys of summer' have left, you can always relive memories through delightful books such as this..