Swimscape

[Image: Courtesy of ifonlyhecouldswim].

ifonlyhecouldswim (IOHCS) is currently working on a project called Oxygen is Overrated, "a photography-based publication on swimming pool culture" coming out this summer/fall, with open submissions accepted until 15 March 2011. "There are no thematic guidelines," the editors write, "as long as the swimming pool subject is clearly defined."

IOHCS describes itself as "a research agency investigating the relationships among hydrology, spatiality, and culture." Citing J.G. Ballard, they refer to the swimming pool as "a natural world redesigned as inhabited, imagined and inhaled environment," a next nature achieved by means of closely regulated hydrology. "Let us visualize this existing man-made landscape."

Visual and textual explorations of the pool's sociological mise-en-scène and its attendant microclimate are welcome; check out the publication's website and Flickr page for more info.

As a random aside, I worked as a poolboy in North Carolina one summer when I was 16.