Text: Belle Hutton via AnOther Magazine

Looking at Emma Hartvig’s series The Swimmers, with its crystalline blue water and acrobatic women in pristine white costumes, feels like stepping back in time. Or rather, diving into another era. This is not surprising. “I have this thing for Esther Williams and the old school Los Angeles pool culture,” the photographer admits.

“I’m very interested, generally in all my work, in tension and awkwardness in juxtaposition with beauty,” says Hartvig. “Like the whole Hollywood cinematic tale of ‘after the curtain falls’.”

Hartvig taps into what she calls the ‘behind the scenes’ of what the Aqualillies do, capturing them without any element of performativity, and this lack of veneer is what renders The Swimmers so striking.

With some shots taken from an unexpected angle – the swimmers might dive down into a bottom corner of the frame, or float in formation at the frame’s very edge as another watches on – there is an intriguing sense of tension and movement. It was “how serious, hard-working and strong these swimmers are,” that Hartvig hopes to communicate – and she certainly does, to wondrous effect.

Photos: Emma Hartvig

Featured Lillies: Aqualillies California / Alysha, Carla, Emma, Jane, Kate, Katya, Meghan, Paige