The Swimmers are a group of synchronized swimmers in Los Angeles that goes under the name “The Aqualillies”. As I photographed them a burning hot day in Laurel Canyon, the intention was to see deeper than the surface.
Like a show ground for the body, the swimming pool is a ready-made stage for these swimmers. This is what is performed; silence, vision, a breath that is held, a curve of the lower back. A principle of synchronized swimming is that what you keep afloat is not really the body, but the illusion that water is not different from air.
The audience is what matters here. These masterly athletes are in the water to entertain. In seeing, the observer’s body undergoes change. The performance is a part of the audience’s identity, and thus, much like cinema, they identify and consume.
A project that is deeper than the surface – the swimmers close their eyes and surrender to the consumption of their act, leaving us in an eerie state where tension and beauty collide.
