Pools From Above

WORDS PRUE MILLER

In many ways, this is the success of Brad Walls’ new photographic essay, Pools From Above. In his own words, Walls wanted us to experience a ‘wave of nostalgia’, that lightness, that simplicity found in the gleaming watery expanses of the swimming pool. For those who love summer, it will take us back to carefree times of wet hair and damp towels, of exasperated parents calling out to us not to ‘walk water all over the house’ and memories of exquisite, weightless freedom.

But then our mind, now calm and receptive, is allowed to wander over these pristine images collected across the globe by this remarkably talented aerial photographer, and we consider the other aspects of these pictures.

Often captured off centre, or from other unexpected angles the pools, the captured images become so brilliantly graphic. The brittle water textures offset by the unrelenting outline of the pool edges, punctuated by sparse furniture and often dramatic shadows. From this angle, from this bird’s eye view, the architecture of the pools becomes quite mesmeric.

Occasionally the book sees the deft hand of an artist who feels the need to add just one extra daub – an inflatable swan in a Malibu waterscape, the single tiny figure of a child in a hug expanse of water in Sydney, the circle of an inner tube toy in perfect relationship to angular sun lounges in a Mexican garden.

Each time that happened I couldn’t help but smile and say aloud, to no one in particular, “Yes, perfect.”

In just 89 images, with almost zero copy, offered in coffee table size, Brad Halls has brought us the joyous familiar, from an entirely new angle. Far from negative, here is a positive experience that will leave every observer delighted.

Pools From Above

Brad Hall

Smith Street Books