Beach

In the tradition of Robert Mapplethorpe and Tom Bianchi, Beach celebrates both the male nude and the pleasures of friendship on a summer's day.

David Morgan's remarkable photographs of the male figure have been appearing in New York City for over a decade-on posters and party invitations, prints and greeting cards, as well as in various magazines.

Now Morgan has brought his camera to the beach and focussed it on young men at play, gamboling among the elements, enjoying the sun, sand and sea, while embodying Whitman's "dear love of comrades" with a panache that would have delighted old Walt. These pictures have a sunny sexuality and a sly humor, while exuding a simple joy at being alive and on the beach on a perfect summer day.

The companion story by Ernesto Mestre-Reed captures in remarkable language the lyricism and physical joy that irradiate Morgan's photographs, making Beach a contrapuntal celebration of the magic circle of male camaraderie.

Since 1975 David Morgan has been a commercial photographer in New York City where his images of the male figure soon made him famous, his images for the 2(x)ist underwear ad campaign were enormously successful. His photographs have appeared on calendars, greeting cards, and posters and in the book Basic Training: A Fundamental Guide to Fitness for Men (St. Martin's Press 1998).

Ernesto Mestre-Reed, the author of The Lazarus Rumba, lives in Brooklyn, NY.