Ditch: Montauk, New York, 11954

Nat Ward’s DITCH: MONTAUK, NY 11954—a bustling photographic excursion to Montauk’s most famous beach—brings to light the never-before-seen high/low culture on a beach known for being a low-key celebrity/local hangout. Emblematic of the laidback life of its fishing village origins-turned-Hamptons-hot-to-go summer, the viewer gleans a rare insight into the not-so-secret life of Manhattan's elite and Montauk locals, all peacefully coexisting at the same surfing break, itself renowned among surfers. Accompanied by an essay from renowned musician Rufus Wainwright and his husband, Jörn Weisbrodt, along with an afterword from acclaimed poet and essayist Wayne Koestenbaum, Nat Ward’s sprawling black and white panoramas of Ditch Plains Beach revel in the human drama that makes DITCH the perfect beach chill, sure to spark interest from your creatives, influencers, and blue collar buds all year round.

Stumbling down a makeshift path through a sand cliff in 2018, Ward found the crowded, raucous reality of Ditch Plains, Montauk’s most famous surf beach. It’s a place where families, surfers, retirees, artists and writers, social media influencers, contractors, landscapers, celebrities, and day traders all crush together on the rocky shore for a day. This books brings to light the high/low culture on a beach known for being a low-key celebrity hideout. Emblematic of a laid back fishing village that became swanky. It is a place where politics are more unseemly than naked flesh, where human pleasure is sought out in public view. Struck by this libertine opposition to antagonistic norms, Ward photographed the denizens of Ditch every day for four summers. In the process, Ward became a fully-fledged member of the eclectic tribe: a half-naked, long-haired character with a clown camera that no one could miss.

The photographs in DITCH: MONTAUK, NY 11954 navigate the trickier engagements of looking and being looked at: the epic sweep of multiple dramas playing out across the sand, the confrontations, the seductions, the freedom to be a body amongst other bodies splayed in public, the hints at desire and reticence, the skin, the sun, the heat, the salt, the slippages of masculinity and femininity performed, the lounging in a way that purposefully conceals or reveals, the unexpected and clarion gestures of children, the futility in the drive to hold on to youthful appearance, and the inevitable process of aging toward an entropic end.

Ward’s panoramas are inspired by the visual energy of American photographic masters Helen Levitt, Weegee, and Lisette Model, along with Italian Neorealist standouts like Vittorio de Sica’s The Bicycle Thieves and Rossellini’s Rome, Open City.

Legendary musician, queer icon, and long-time Montauk resident Rufus Wainwright contributes an introduction in collaboration with his husband, Jorn Weisbrodt, that provides insight into the history of Montauk and delves into the intimate, social, and psychological realities of the beach as featured in Ward’s panoramic efforts. And a signal afterword by renowned poet, iconoclast, and cultural critic Wayne Koestenbaum parses the visceral, sensual pleasure to be found in these images while also leaning into the idea that pleasure of this sort must serve as an inspiration toward a radical departure from the monomania and divisive strife of everyday life.