Pursuing his thesis that female beauty along with male talent are the twin engines of human evolutionary development, avant garde photographer and filmmaker Sam Kash has devoted this photo monograph to what he refers to as "transcendent beauty"-- rare youthful beauty that cannot be defined in words, but requires actual examples for its definition: "...a beauty that is in flux, that is in radiant bloom, that is arching in time, that may peak on any given day, indeed at any given moment, and then inevitably begin a qualitative change, gone in that constellation forever, never to return to that moment again, except, according to plan, in the next generation borne of that beauty." Much like flowers that bud, then bloom for their fleeting day in the sun, but the difference here is that these rare flowers are each one of a kind.
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About the Author
Sam Kash began his artistic career in New York City as an independent filmmaker. His special interest is in female beauty and nature studies. The first public showing of his film work was in 1981 on Manhattan cable TV. His films continued to be shown periodically in New York until 1987, when he began producing the innovative weekly cable TV show named Mondo Bello, a series on beauty, fashion, music, and art. His experimental, non-linear, non-narrative programs were among the first that capitalized on the special effects and flexible editing capabilities of the then emerging video technology. The underlying concept of his films--beauty for the eyes, music for the ears--has attracted a large local following, and his techniques have influenced many others working in the visual arts. This book represents the first publication of his photographic prints, which consist of frames from his film "Surf Goddesses of Galaxy X: The Principals of Beauty". Writing under another name, he is also the author of books in mathematics and psychology. As such, he is one of very few individuals to have made significant contributions to both the arts and sciences.
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From the Preface:
There is something sacred about the beach. Where else can we experience the intersection of so many of God's greatest glories; the indomitable sun, the infinity within the sands, the rapturous lapping of the surf, the unique taste and scent of the ethereal mist, and where both young and old are caught up in a palpable joy of the moment.
What is more, here at the timeless beach, the surface trappings of culture and caste are largely gone. Instead, raw beauty, a primitive beauty, is revealed and stands out like so many jewels in this golden setting.
And while there is beauty to be found in all places and among all ages, to me, youthful female beauty in its emergence and ascendancy is the most intriguing beauty of all. Landscapes will wait for the artist's convenience, still lives and flowers will wait, posers for portraits will wait, abstract lines and squiggles too, but for me, the greatest challenge is to preserve that fleeting moment in time, an ephemeral image that would not otherwise exist but as a memory, and then only if our eyes and minds were so quick and true as to preserve it.
I have searched, but I know of no rarer beauty than female beauty in bloom. In this respect, my aesthetic sense is more closely aligned with that of the fashion and cinema industries, than with that of the modern institutionalized art market, which too frequently judges the "merely beautiful" as quaint and places greater importance and worth on the vacuous, grotesque, vulgar, and bizarre; perhaps reflecting the current configuration of civilization, such as it is. But to portray the ugly, cynical, and dispiriting aspects of life is all too easy, and in my view mistakes journalism for art.
While many disclaim its validity, it is virtually a tautology that female beauty, through an ancient code of highly selective mating, has gained its value by becoming a marker for the more admittedly esteemed male traits of ingenuity and productivity that have made our human species so much more progressive than those of the other apes. Is it a coincidence that we are not only more able than Neanderthals and chimps, but more attractive as well?
Generation after generation, the recursive and selective mating of female attractiveness with male talent, creativity, and productivity, is the dynamic underlying the very real wedding of beauty with ability, and the resulting confluence and growth of the two in each succeeding generation.
While it is easy enough to understand the overall appeal of female beauty in an evolutionary sense, and its usual peak in the years near motherhood, what I find more mystical is our inability to define the precise characteristics of beauty, especially the face. The inherent appeal of curvaceous hips and ample breasts is logical enough, for they are related, respectively, to the success of child-bearing and child-nursing. This understanding does not diminish their beauty a bit, but rather enhances it, and inspires awe when we see a rare instance of these features in a form that surely seems like unsurpassable perfection. And yet, how that one curve in its simplicity outshines another.
But the arcane characteristics of the face in conjunction with these bodily curves are even more awe-inspiring. Why should apparently arbitrary facial features be so varied and complex? Why so many unique signatures of beauty? How is it that two faces, for example, quite different from one another, are equally attractive? And why are artists and scientists unable to create a uniquely beautiful face at will, simply by combining some of the more familiar component features of beauty. It really cannot be done that well. And it has not been done that frequently during the past 50,000 years since the early cave artists. I sense it is because the human figure and face are truly God's inimitable work, and surely the greatest feat accomplished on Earth.
And we recognize this most clearly in our annual pilgrimage to the beach. It is as if we come to honor our primordial memory of eons ago, when our seedling ancestors splashed upon the beach, spread across the land, growing into a zillion permutations, eventually bringing us to this moment in time, as we return to that singular, sacred place where our journey began.
So, in light of what seems to be the obvious, I have a very low tolerance for those who denigrate the value of beauty in general, and especially those creeps who snicker at my fundamental interest in, communion with, and celebration of, a youthful female beauty of truly transcendent dimensions; a beauty that is in flux, that is in radiant bloom, that is arching in time, that may peak on any given day, indeed at any given moment, and then inevitably begin a qualitative change, gone in that constellation forever, never to return to that moment again, except, according to plan, in the next generation borne of that beauty.
True beauty, then, is way beyond words. I have tried my best in these photographs to capture and convey its human essence, and top reserve it for the future generations, so that the world does indeed become a more beautiful place.
Sam Kash
New York
June, 1995
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2.0 out of 5 stars
Movie, Maybe; Book, Not,
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This review is from: Surf Goddesses: Beauty Meets the Beach (Paperback)
Where did the author ever get the idea that his movie could be successfully translated into a book of still shots? This book fails on every level except one:Its one success is that it is a completely innocent book --truely candid. But only one photo in it, a picture of an Afro-American girl smiling at the cameraman, is worthy of the book's high aspirations. Some other shots, which would have succeeded otherwise, are just too diminished by the blurriness that characterizes the entire book. Compositionally, most of the photos are no better than throw-away snapshots. They certainly aren't doing their subjects justice. Kash, as a beachcomber, is a fraud. He hasn't spent enough time at the beach, or else he got his brains baked as a kid and is too fried to take the time it takes in the sun to amass a portifolio of good still shots.
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