“Beach” by David Morgan 2000
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 focused 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. Ernesto Mestre-Reed, the author of The Lazarus Rumba, lives in Brooklyn, NY.
David Morgan
A NYC professional photographer since 1975 DAVID MORGAN's career has spanned celebrities, advertising, packaging, theatrical production stills & posters, magazine covers, fashion & editorial, travel, architecture, CD and book covers, food, still-life and table top, and fine art.
His landmark packaging art for 2(x)ist in 1994 brought him mainstream attention and soon followed with 30 more lines of packaging in the US. His crisp black and white figurative studies have become icons of world gay culture, exhibited in Prague, London, Tokyo, Beijing, Amsterdam, Johannesburg, and Rio de Janeiro. St. Martin’s Press has published two of his books: Basic Trainging, 1998 & Beach, 2000. In October 2008 his work was most recently exhibited in Paris at Galerie David Guiraud from the publication Homme pour Homme, by Pierre Bonhomme-Bohran. His photographs have appeared in Vanity Fair, L’Uomo Vogue, Face, Paper Magazine, Details, GQ, Penthouse, Essence Magazine, The New York Times, The Sunday Times Magazine, Fitness for Women, Men’s Fitness, MetroSource, Los Angeles Times. A former actor, he also coaches professionally for film & television performers. He directed Charles Busch in Dames at Sea in 1993. He has been one of the industries top headshot photographers since 1975 (www.davidmorganphotography.com).
In 1989 in Fire Island Pines he provided his first male nude image for the theater production of “Anything Goes.”
1991
Pines Dog Show poster
1990
The following year he created his signature work for “The White Party”, the legendary New York city winter dance event.
In 1992 designer Greg Sovell chose David to create the stunning b&w photographs that launched 2(x)ist .
In 2000 he published “Beach.”
