”I don’t know whether it’s because I’m a Pisces or because my parents first met at a pool, but I’ve always loved swimming. At some point, I started training for swim meets and took third place in my age-group at the Hamburg Championships. Then I began playing water polo, surprisingly became the German youth champion in 1994 and ended up playing in the national league for six years.

I began collecting pool photos only after all this—sort of as a way to remember the place where I had spent so much time and which for me embodied as much pleasure as it did discipline and exhaustion. My collection of film stills, found images and personal photographs contains a similar ambivalence: it pays homage to the symbol of summer and recreation while at the same time capturing the melancholy of empty pools and public swimming places.“ —Anna-Lena Wenzel