s w i m m i n g p o o l s • 2003 - 2007
“To see a swimming pool somewhere from afar, perhaps from an airplane flying into Los Angeles or São Paolo, sparkling blue amidst the concrete grays of those big cities, awakes memories of the ocean just crossed.” Bill Kouwenhoven
pool_24, müllersches volksbad, munich 2006
pool_25, müllersches volksbad, munich 2006
pool_15, oberer Letten, zurich, switzerland 2004
pool_21, unterer Letten, zurich, switzerland 2004
pool_22, unterer Letten, zurich, switzerland 2004
pool_12, mineral spa bad berg, stuttgart 2004
pool_14, mineral spa bad berg, bad cannstatt, germany 2003
pool_02, public pool, munich 2004
pool_03, public pool, munich 2004
pool_01, private pool, stuttgart 2006
pool_50, private pool, lake starnberg, Germany 2006
pool_42, hotel pool, são paulo, brazil 2006
pool_46, hotel pool, são paulo, brazil 2006
pool_45, hotel pool, são paulo, brazil 2006
pool_40, hotel pool, Italy 2006
pool_39, hotel pool, Italy 2006
pool_48, private pool, lake starnberg, germany 2006
pool_38, hotel pools, italy 2006
pool_44, hotel pool, são paulo, brazil 2006
pool_41, hotel pool, são paulo, brazil 2006
s w i m m i n g p o o l s • 2003 - 2007
The magic of water has fascinated Andrea Altemüller since she was a child and she often dreamt of oceans and pools.
In the beginning she photographed pools with people, but then realized that even without water and empty of people,
the sensuous forms and colors of the tiles and concrete, of wood and steel, sometimes curved and sometimes straight,
and the shapes of the pools themselves, awakened her desire to freeze these graphic patterns or architecture into her
subtly beautiful imagery.
Here, with these photographs we see the swimming pool as the site of wellness and healing, and of luxury and pure
pleasure - it is the ultimate symbol of all our desires and longings. The bathers, too, though absent from these images
have left their traces behind to be read by those who can feel them. The viewer can just pick up the scent of suntan lotion
or hear the splashing of swimmers just off camera and out of the frame.
The swimming pool is, of course, the site of innumerable Hollywood fantasies from James Bond to The Graduate, films
which reflect the glamour and elegance of the cocktail era of the 1950s and 1960s. In David Hockney’s famous paintings,
pools show something of the seductive, sensuous, “good life” of Southern California. Beautiful young men lounge about
sunlit pools or swim through limpid blue liquid, weightless and lazy, the reflections of the tiles and the ripples of
water shining off their naked skin.
Bill Kouwenhoven