Wonderful, strange photographs of Rotterdam's public pools

Few things look quite as fun as floating about in a big blue pool, surrounded by those foam wiggly things right now. The moustachioed gent above, reclining in the water, was shot as part of photographic duo Labadie / Van Tour’s Pool series for a Vers Beton magazine feature about Rotterdam’s public swimming pools.

Labadie / Van Tour is Mathjis Labadie and Roel Van Tour, who had collaborated on projects with designers including Hella Jongerius before forming their official partnership. Roel explains that on the Pool series, the pair was given free rein to capture images exactly how they wanted.

“We decided to work with a mixture of found situations (improvisation) and a more directed approach,” he says. “In a way we didn’t know beforehand what to expect – we’d just bring our gear and lamps and start directing with the ingredients we found on the spot.

“At the outside bath at night firemen were doing diving training, which was a great opportunity to have one of them pose for us. Same goes for the one with all the men in the water. This particular swimming pool is used by the cadets of the military academy in Rotterdam. We thought it would be great to direct them through their commander, who didn’t mind us being in charge.”