Satisfyingly Sculptural Swimming Pools – As Seen From Above – Are the Stars of a New Photobook

Fine-art photographer Brad Walls grew up in Sydney, swimming in his backyard pool until his “skin was full of wrinkles”.

The 30-year-old Aussie is currently based in Mexico City, with plans to move to New York next year. He tells Broadsheet he tapped into his childhood memories of summer days in the pool to come up with a new photobook, Pools From Above , which includes 89 aerial photos of striking swimming pools in Australia, Mexico, Southeast Asia and the US.

The series was produced over three years , starting out as a way to document his holidays. Walls then picked up a copy of Annie Kelly’s Splash: The Art of the Swimming Pool and he was inspired to bring his love of negative space, compositional balance and symmetry to his drone-shot pool pics.

“The series emphasises the pools’ less appreciated elements that I fell in love with – their curves, sharp edges, diverse blue hues and the way elongated shadows play against their surfaces,” he says.

“I’ve come to learn that pools have distinct personalities – some evoking a sense of tranquillity, others a more solemn feeling,” he adds. One of which is exemplified by “Lollipop”, shot in Malibu, California. “It’s rich in colour and a smattering of shapes,” he says.

His series also includes pools found in Vaucluse and Surry Hills in Sydney; at Miami Beach, Florida; and in Tulum, Mexico.

His next photography project is all about ballet. Walls has photographed the New York City Ballet, the English National Ballet in London and Salt Lake City Ballet in Utah for his next book, which was inspired by the popularity of South Africa-born ballerina Montana Rubin, whom he photographed in Australia in 2020.

Pools From Above by Brad Walls is published by Smith Street Books ($59.95). Walls is also selling limited editions of the pool pics as posters via his website ($99).