Bathing scenes c. 1900 - 1920

Phillipse & Lees made 'Bathing Scenes' with who knows what, sometime back when. It's like a faded memory, the kind where the details blur, but the feeling sticks with you. Look at how the figures almost dissolve into the water. They're not really there, more like ghosts enjoying a day at the beach. There's something about the way the light catches the water, a shimmer that makes you think of endless possibilities. It's like they weren't trying to capture a real moment, but a feeling, an idea of what it means to be free. The way the edges of the photographs blend into the white of the page reminds me of the kind of experimental photography that was happening in the early twentieth century, people like Alvin Langdon Coburn and others who were trying to push the boundaries of the medium. It’s all about capturing a mood, an atmosphere, rather than a literal representation of the world.