Devil's Pool

Made at a swimming hole in Philadelphia where bathing is illegal, the Devil’s Pool photographs recognize the human need to revel in our physical selves and commune with the natural world.

The Devil’s Pool photographs explore a swimming hole in Philadelphia’s Wissahickon Park and emphasize the value of access to green spaces within an urban setting. The project investigates how people relate to their environment and affirms a human need or impulse to commune with the natural world. The work pictures diversity, celebrating the human body interacting with nature, and looks at relationships among people, their bodies, and the environments that they inhabit. It recognizes a long tradition of bathing throughout art history (both indoors and out in nature) and the potential for a pictorial space where the body can be openly represented and honored. This work considers the reflexivity in viewing imagery of people fully taken by their physical and psychological surroundings. Devil’s Pool stems from my love for the Wissahickon and the respite that it provides. People from all over are drawn to this urban swimming hole as a place to play and revel in physicality and nature. The images depict moments of coherence among our bodies and the world around us. At Devil’s Pool, I am able to expand my admiring picture of everyday bodies, their owners absorbed in unselfconscious presence.