At the Beach is a definitive photography monograph by renowned American photographer Tod Papageorge, published by Stanley/Barker. Moving away from his signature 35mm New York street scenes, Papageorge utilized a medium-format camera during four distinct trips to the Los Angeles coast between 1975 and 1988. The resulting black-and-white images capture a “rapturous yet funny” tableau of bodies, surfboards, and sand, illuminated by the brilliant California sun. Papageorge explores the gap between the mythical Los Angeles of cinema and the tangible, tactile reality of its beachgoers. As a longtime director of the graduate photography program at Yale, Papageorge’s work in this volume represents a peak in his investigation of the “poetry of the literal world.”