At the Beach

By Suzanne Révy

Back in the 1970’s, the Los Angeles sun was suffused with smog. But at the beaches, the hazy marine layer would burn off over the course of the day, freshening the air to admit a crisp, blazing light. As a formerly sun-kissed denizen of Los Angeles, I spent my weekends at the ocean, playing beach volleyball, swimming, body surfing and baking in the sun to achieve a deep tan. So, it was a heady and nostalgic trip to see Tod Papageorge: At the Beach curated by his former student and current photography educator Lisa Kereszi installed at the Museum of Contemporary Art/CT in Westport, Connecticut along with In the Pool: On Influence, featuring many of his students. Both shows are on view through October 26th, 2025.

Feature Image: “Manhattan Beach” by Tod Papageorge, 1981, from the exhibition At the Beach, courtesy of the artist and the Museum of Contemporary Art/CT.

“Manhattan Beach” by Tod Papageorge, 1981, from the exhibition At the Beach, courtesy of the artist and the Museum of Contemporary Art/CT.

In 1975, Papageorge took a road trip from New York across the country and ended up on the beaches of Los Angeles with a 6x9cm medium format camera. He was drawn to the crowds of surfers, volleyball fans and sunbathers. His black and white pictures made on that and several subsequent trips in the mid-80’s are teeming with human gesture, glowing skin, and sparkling light. His tactile studies are cacophonous in form; nude or barely covered torsos, arms, and legs invite viewers to revel and unwind with these sun worshippers. It was a time when crowds would interact with each other instead of their own screens, creating compositions of dense and magnetic interactions. 

“Malibu Beach” by Tod Papageorge, 1975, from the exhibition At the Beach, courtesy of the artist and the Museum of Contemporary Art/CT.

“Los Angeles Beach” by Tod Papageorge, 1988, from the exhibition At the Beach, courtesy of the artist and the Museum of Contemporary Art/CT

Several photographs employ a birds-eye view, producing abstractions that emphasize texture, shadow and light. The elongated, sharp-cornered ovals of surfboards create a compositional rhythm throughout the show that echoes the ebb and flow of waves. Strewn across the sand, prone and supine bodies are surrounded by divots of footprints that all could be fossils of the future. Beaches erode and change over eons, which raises the question, will there be traces of the human presence left on these urban beaches? Happily, we can rely on these photographs to recall this era.

“Los Angeles Beach” by Tod Papageorge, 1988, from the exhibition At the Beach, courtesy of the artist and the Museum of Contemporary Art, CT.

Tucked into a smaller gallery are five pictures Papageorge made around the same time with the same camera in New York City’s Central Park. As in some of the beach pictures, he sought figures in repose among urban nature, and these smaller-scaled vintage prints contrast in emotional tone. They are quiet and less populated, though no less complex, as the details in texture and light are mesmerizing. 

“Central Park (White Hair/Blanket/Clothes)” (left) and “Central Park (Adam)” (right) by Tod Papageorge, 1982. (Installation photograph by Jenna Bascom, courtesy of the Museum of Contemporary Art/CT)

“Laguna Beach” by Tod Papageorge, 1988, from the exhibition At the Beach, courtesy of the artist and the Museum of Contemporary Art/CT.

Papageorge led the graduate program in photography at Yale University from 1979 to 2013, and we learn from a video his thoughts on the role of photography as it relates to truth, fiction and poetry. Photography is neither fictional nor fully truthful, and while Papageorge’s photographs do not precisely reflect my own memories, they surely evoke the smell of the sea and salt on my skin as I view them. The subject matter, as he describes it, “[is] grist for being transformed into poetry — as photographs!” His words remind us that the photograph is a thing unto itself, which may mirror the real world, but it can also shape and embody deeper dimensions of time and memory. 

In the Pool: On Influence, photographs by students of Tod Papageorge at Yale, (Installation photograph by Jenna Bascom, courtesy of the Museum of Contemporary Art/CT)

In the Pool: On Influence, photographs by students of Tod Papageorge at Yale, (Installation photograph by Jenna Bascom, courtesy of the Museum of Contemporary Art/CT)

Teaching photography cannot be measured in the same way as teaching math, but an accompanying exhibition called In the Pool: On Influence presents work by students of Papageorge while they studied with him at Yale, both as prints and in a projected slide show. It is an illuminating look at the results of his pedagogy. The breadth of photographic ideas shows a legacy that fostered broad artistic inquiry. Several quotes reveal the stress of the admissions interview, the drama and details of the critique process, and the profound power of mentorship to their photographic practices today. And it is enlightening to see the early works of so many of today’s influential and significant photographic practitioners. 

For more information: https://mocact.org/

Tod Papageorge: At the Beach, installation photograph by Jenna Bascom, courtesy of the Museum of Contemporary Art/CT.