The End: The Women. The Waves. The Beauty.

By Pat Fallon

Back in May 2004 a book was published. A great book was published. A book chock full of amazing photos of Ditch Plains, Montauk surf culture and naked women, lots of them. 200 pages of them. These shots came together to make Michael Dweck’s famous photo book; The End.

As I’m sure you can tell from the explanation above, this book has become a favorite of Whalebone’s. We recommend anyone who hasn’t flipped through Dweck’s masterpiece, pick up a copy and plop it on your coffee table to share with others or to gaze at with your morning coffee. I recently came across the book in Left Hand coffee shop, and after a while of not looking through it, I was reminded that I should probably recommend it to all of you!

Let me paint a picture for you with a preview.

Through a filter that brings you back to the early days in Montauk when fishing was the most popular activity among locals, and the surfing scene was just blossoming, The End embodies a feel of a quaint little hamlet with beauty and emotion. Surfers were limited in numbers, locals were just people who lived in Montauk, who you knew lived in Montauk, and the extent of visitors were families with vacation houses on the Old Montauk highway, or surfers and fishermen from western Long Island who couldn’t leave Liar’s.

Dweck wanted to express that notion from the perspective of people who lived life through that filter. So in the 1990s, Dweck rented a home in Ditch and wiggled his way into the local crowd, to paint the picture of the perfect life of  a Montauk local, a fantasy for most, yet reality for some. Surf all day, drink all night, fish in between and date only the most beautiful women at the most beautiful spots in town, sounds like a dream right?

Well Dweck’s photo essay, The End, succeeded in taking that notion and putting it onto pages, as a story for you to enjoy. A visual depiction of the perfect Montauk life using powerful portraits of local faces, stunning women, and views of iconic Montauk landscapes. Through his stunning photography, Dweck captured that feeling of the Endless Summer where surfing, sunny beach days, and untapped beauty trumps all.