16th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Altered Images
The Diver

A diver prepares to take the plunge at an outdoor suburban pool, on a hot high summer, yellow light afternoon. From a vertical perspective, a curious thing of beauty, the lovely effect water has on filtered sunlight melds the diverse flesh coloured bodies with the liquid, further heightened by the various movements, positions, and body shapes of the people, all stripped back to life's essentials. A metaphor for all life, the organism, either at rest or struggling with its environment, is always enveloped in it, surrounded by particles in motion and waves of energy, immersed in three dimensional space and linear time. And time, either a few seconds, or a few millennia, from a distance does not seem that different, a whole life time can seem no longer, or more precious than one hot sunny afternoon playing in the pool. In the end, it is all, just ephemeral froth and bubbles in “water”.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 12.2016
Date Uploaded: 11.2018
Photo Location: Ballarat, Australia
Copyright: © Victor Stepanow