His photographs adorn local businesses, history books, libraries and government buildings and his name is synonymous with the very idea of Myrtle Beach. Mr. Myrtle Beach, Jack Thompson grew up on the Grand Strand and documented the every day scenes that would have otherwise been lost to time but were immortalized in black and white for generations to come to appreciate.
His weren't photos from a studio or with specialized equipment which so many use to gatekeep so many hobbies. He simply snapped photos of the people and places he saw in his every day life.
Beach side luncheons, locals engaging in past times like surfing and pulling in nets full of fish, there was nothing too ordinary to become the target of his camera lens at a time when these photos seemed like nothing special.
Then all at once these local legends and institutions vanished from the earth without a trace besides the negatives in Jack's collection.
Myrtle Beach is once again in a time of great transition, once thought invincible eateries are vanishing and longtime titans are changing hands and who is there to document it? Sure your occasional Retro Guys may swoop in and have a 15 minute video dedicated to the history of this or that local establishment, so many still fall through the cracks of the mundane.
A sign. a motel, an old trashcan, so many of the pillars of our community that we stare at every day but think nothing of are also changing and getting updated and there's one Myrtle Beach Native who is taking the time to capture those corners of our city we pass by every day, and his name is Bridger Swinimer.
While Bridger travels all over and documents all kinds of modern Americana, he is equally passionate about documenting the lesser appreciated parts of Myrtle Beach that won't make it to the travel documents and advertisements. While distinctively urban, there's a dramatic beauty to his work that shows he isn't revealing an underbelly as much as highlighting the beauty in the side of Myrtle that isn't as polished or manicured.
Beach Music Center photo credit Jack Thompson (1966)
Beachwear store photo credit Bridger Swinimer (2026)
Photo Credit Bridger Swinimer (2026)
Photo Credit Bridger Swinimer (2026)
Ocean Boulevard 1954 photo credit Jack Thompson
photo credit Bridger Swinimer (2026)
Every 20 years or so the great wheel in the sky favors genuine artists after a long drought of plastic fantastic Madison Avenue sheen. In Jack's time the 60s post war era gleam was fading and some of the cobwebs of historical necessity were settling in and as a result Jack captured a Myrtle Beach in flux.
New routes were being cut and a new Myrtle Beach was emerging from an Airbase requiring entertainment to a city catering to families on the road.
Myrtle Beach is again changing. This time, from a seasonal vacation destination to a journey of self discovery for young adults trying to make it out on their own and retirees looking to recapture some of their glory days at the beach in their golden years. Nobody is out there capturing this quite like Bridger.
There isn't anything particularly special about any of these images, they aren't dramatic scenes of war or heroic political figures giving important speeches at pivotal moments of history, they're of store fronts and service workers about their daily lives.
They're a snap shot of a beach town in a moment of great transformation both locally and on a national and international level. They're a tomato sandwich on a summer day, nothing fancy or in high demand, but something cozy and comfortable and a reflection of ourselves and our values.
We aren't just passive observers in these projects, we are the subjects, a living canvas, a tableau vivant of the modern world in 2026 on the Grand Strand and in 60 years we will be no doubt looking back at these photos remembering the good old days of Myrtle Beach in the 2020s and how good we had it not even realizing it.
Photo Credit Bridger Swinimer (2026)
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