Thomas Kern was born in Switzerland in 1965. Trained as a photographer in Zürich, he started working as a photojournalist in 1989. He was a founder of the Swiss photographers agency Lookat Photos in 1990. Thomas Kern has won twice a World Press Award and has been awarded several Swiss national scholarships. His work has been widely exhibited and it is represented in various collections.
It was a hot and heavy summer week and the demand for photoshoots was correspondingly dull. And so the photographer Benjamin ManserExternal link killed time with friends at the Arbon outdoor poolExternal link in northeastern Switzerland.
“Personally I don’t like going into the water that much. I dozed a lot, fell asleep and woke up again and again because of the screaming and the shouting coming from the direction of the diving tower,” Manser says.
Fascinated, he began to watch the jumpers, though he would never dare to climb up, even for a better view of the ten-metre platform. The next day he took his camera with him to the pool and began to ask the daring divers if he could capture them in flight. (The swimming pool regulations state: “Filming and photographing is only permitted in consultation with those responsible for the swimming pool”.)
No bottom, no top
From this simple situation, a series of pictures was created that captivates with its equally formal simplicity. The bodies captured by the camera float between the concrete platform and the water surface, both outside the picture.
It’s a moment in which there seems to be no bottom and no top; a moment into which you can let yourself fall; a moment of freedom.
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