Contemporary art can and should surprise and connect people, according to Pamela Hovland, acting executive director at the Museum of Contemporary Art Connecticut. MoCA\CT’s current exhibition, “Tod Papageorge: At the Beach,” did just that, bringing together strangers at the Westport museum, who now share a unique bond.

The collection of black and white photographs were taken decades ago in southern California by famed photographer Tod Papageorge, a former professor of photography at the Yale School of Art, where he taught for 35 years and directed the graduate program in photography.

“I've been a photographer since I was a senior in college in 1962 and saw a couple pictures by a man named Henri Cartier-Bresson and decided that night that I was going to be a photographer,” Papageorge told News 12. “These pictures in this show happened over four separate trips that I made to Los Angeles and the beaches.”

The pictures capture candid moments of beachgoers back in the 1970s and 80s, but they’re still making waves today. Papageorge said during the pandemic, he was looking at his old work and thought he could make a collection out of it. That led to an "At the Beach" book in 2023, followed by a gallery show in Los Angeles, then Germany.

“This the first exhibit of this work on the east coast,” Papageorge explained.

After it opened over the summer, the New Yorker magazine published a piece promoting the exhibition.

“Of course that was fantastic for our museum. We got all kinds of attention from that and of course all kinds of visitors coming to the museum,” Hovland told News 12.

The New Yorker article also caught the eye of Kelley Haley all the way in Boise, Idaho. Haley recognized herself in one of the featured photos.

“That was me almost 50 years ago, playing volleyball just a couple blocks away from where I lived! I think I was barely 15 years old,” said Haley, who grew up in Manhattan Beach, California. “That was my favorite bathing suit of all time, and then of course I had on my favorite tank top, ‘Save the whales.’”

When Haley saw the picture, she said it brought back a flood of feelings from that time of her life, a time she called carefree and easy.

“It's very nostalgic to me and very sentimental,” Haley told News 12, “And that sort of sparked an idea to go see it.”

So, Haley reached out to MoCA\CT and planned a trip to the East Coast.

“We were of course thrilled to get that phone call and thrilled to hear her story,” said Hovland, who invited Haley to come when Papageorge would be there discussing his work.

Papageorge said Haley is the third person who’s recognized her younger self in his work over the years.

“So, it's something I’m a little bit used to, but at the same time, it's sort of amazing, right?” Papageorge stated. “There's always a little trepidation. What's she going to say? How's she going to feel about it? But of course, I immediately understood that it was only a very, very, very positive thing for her.”

“I just got so emotional, but good emotions,” Haley told News 12, explaining that seeing the picture in person brought her right back to that time of her life. “I remember the smell of like Bain de Soleil or like Coppertone. Everything was just carefree. My hair was like all sandy water curls.”

She even recalls that exact day at the beach in 1978.

“Which to me, is quite extraordinary,” Papageorge said.

“We were playing in a volleyball tournament. We weren't doing super well, so that was a kind of a pow-wow of ‘We’ve got to get it together here for our next game,’” Haley remembered.

Thanks to Papageorge, that moment won't ever fade. And not just for Kelley.

“When she introduced herself, I said, ‘I want you to sit down for a second.’ And when she did, I said, 'You should know that this photograph is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.’ And that, of course, overwhelmed her,’” Papageorge recalled.

“I was shocked,” Haley reiterated. “Such an iconic revered museum, and I’m in there, too, I guess, so someday I’ll go back, and I’ll hopefully get to see that.”

“Tod Papageorge: At the Beach” will be at MoCA\CT through Sunday, Oct. 26. The museum is located at 19 Newtown Turnpike in Westport. Click here to learn more.