Through the Ice by Laurie Swope

The swimming hole only varies in size each season from about 20 to 40 square feet, but the range in human experience within this small area is remarkable. I have been photographing my fellow cold water plungers at the same swimming hole (a slightly different one each winter) since 2022. In this small space, there is both stillness and silliness. There is pain and joy and peace. The variety of human experience and expression I have captured in this limited area seems to expand beyond its boundaries.

Discomfort does not have to overwhelm your entire experience. Every time we glide through the floating shards of ice, their wind chime-like clinking crescendoing with each stroke, we re-learn that it is okay to be uncomfortable. It is okay to be cold. The sound of the tinkling ice shards is always different- the tone dependent on the density of the ice. But as remarkable as the sound is the fact that we can be immersed in 33 degree water and still appreciate their musical quality. We appreciate other things too: the snowy scenery, the blue sky, the laughter of fellow dippers.

The Work © Laurie Swope

The Surprise © Laurie Swope

Many of us were raised to be afraid of the cold and discomfort. Mothers rushed over to button jackets on the way to the car. Grandparents warned of catching the flu in inclement weather. I was told many times that if I fell into a body of water in the winter, I would die within minutes. Now I plunge in frozen ponds and the Atlantic Ocean in winter regularly.

There are physical benefits to cold water immersion which can improve health, such as reducing inflammation, but there is also a great freedom in doing what you did not think was possible. Breaking through the ice- and breaking through our very narrow expectations of what is comfortable- broadens the boundaries of experience and expands our experience of being alive.

Head First © Laurie Swope

Brainfreeze © Laurie Swope

Waterfall © Laurie Swope

Pool Party © Laurie Swope

Roger and Noodle © Laurie Swope

Pool Party © Laurie Swope

Windchimes © Laurie Swope

Laurie Swope
A self-taught editorial and fine art photographer, Laurie Swope began her career as a small town newspaper photographer and continued on as a freelance photojournalist for two decades. Her fine art photographsranging from portrait to photojournalistic in style- have been exhibited in galleries in Venice, Siena, Athens, Crete, Johnson City, Texas, Boston,Winchester and Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Most recently, Laurie’s print “Snowball” was selected for inclusion in Art-Icon’s Static Cinema exhibit in Venice in September of 2025 and her print “Nowhere” was included in the All You Can See exhibit in Siena, Italy for its commended recognition in the 2025 Siena Creative Photography Awards.

Laurie's current project Through the Ice, documenting her cold water immersion communities, have been exhibited at Panopticon Gallery’s First Look 2025: Second Glance, the Marblehead Arts Association’s Variations juried show and recognized by the 2025 Siena Creative Photography Awards, the 2024 and 2025 Prix de la Photographie de Paris, the 2025 Monovisions competition, and the 2024 London Photography Awards.

Laurie lives in coastal New England with her husband and two teenage sons and plunges several times a week all year in the ocean and freshwater ponds.
www.laurieswope.com
@laurieswope

Pool Party © Laurie Swope

The Looking Glass © Laurie Swope

Abyss © Laurie Swope

Nowhere © Laurie Swope

Weightless © Laurie Swope

Anastasia Samoylova: Atlantic Coast

By Anastasia Samoylova

Publisher : Aperture and the Norton Museum of Art

2025 | 144 pages

Anastasia Samoylova: Atlantic Coast opens a vast, quietly unsettling portrait of the American East Coast — one in which nostalgia, dislocation and transformation are sewn into the landscape itself. In this new monograph, Samoylova retraces the route pioneered by Berenice Abbott in 1954, journeying from Florida to Maine to revisit the places Abbott once documented, and to observe what has become of them decades later. Her images — in vivid color and stark black and white — reveal the tension between myth and reality, between promises of progress and the traces of decay or displacement.

Where once small towns and coastal communities had a certain stillness, Samoylova finds change carved into facades and roadside signs, into suburban sprawl and shuttered shopfronts. She frames these scenes with a photographer’s patience and a poet’s sensitivity — capturing abandoned diners, empty motels, decaying houses, ghostly intersections. At the same time, there is stubborn life: occasional portraits of people, wildlife, reminders that behind every sign of decline, someone, something endures.

Her book does not simply document physical places. It traces the shifting contours of identity, belonging and memory in a nation where the open road has long symbolized freedom — and where that ideal has become tangled with consumerism, environmental degradation, and socio-economic upheaval. Through Atlantic Coast, Samoylova asks whether the “American Dream” remains intact, or if it has fractured along with the towns her car passes through.

Reading this volume is to experience a slow, attentive journey — as a witness, as a traveller, as someone invited to reconsider what America has become. Her photographs linger, subtly unsettling the viewer’s assumptions about beauty, progress and decline. In its silence and restraint, the book whispers that memory, identity and place are fragile — and that every road carries stories worth listening to.

Coreen Simpson: A Monograph

By Coreen Simpson

Publisher : Aperture

2025 | 224 pages

Coreen Simpson: A Monograph is the first major book dedicated to the influential photographer and jewelry designer whose career spans more than fifty years. As the second volume in the Vision & Justice Book Series—a groundbreaking initiative created by Dr. Sarah Lewis and coedited with Drs. Leigh Raiford and Deborah Willis—the monograph celebrates Simpson’s enduring impact on visual culture.

Simpson began her career as a journalist before turning to photography, capturing the richness of Black life, fashion, and identity. Her portraits of icons such as Grace Jones, Muhammad Ali, and Toni Morrison, as well as her iconic B-Boys series from the 1980s, showcase her eye for style, pride, and self-expression. The book also features her later work with collage and overpainting, alongside the story of her celebrated jewelry line, including the iconic Black Cameo worn by Rosa Parks and Rihanna.

Featuring original essays by leading voices such as Bridget R. Cooks, Rujeko Hockley, Awol Erizku, and Doreen St. Félix, as well as an in-depth interview by Deborah Willis, Coreen Simpson: A Monograph offers a multifaceted portrait of an artist whose work continues to shape the worlds of photography, fashion, and Black cultural history.

Daido Moriyama: Quartet

By Daido Moriyama

Publisher : Getty Publications

2025 | 440 pages

Explore the groundbreaking early work of Daido Moriyama, one of Japan’s most radical photographers, with this collectible, slipcased photobook.

Daido Moriyama (b. 1938) is one of Japan’s most renowned and prolific photographers. His diverse projects often focus on urban landscapes, exploring light and shadow, and form and abstraction. Using a handheld camera and high-contrast black-and-white film, Moriyama captures Tokyo’s chaotic streets and clandestine underbelly, revealing the darkness and strangeness beneath the surface.

Daido Moriyama: Quartet is a vital anthology of the four seminal photobooks that form the foundation of Moriyama’s career as a photographer: Japan: A Photo Theater, A Hunter, Farewell Photography, and Light and Shadow. Spanning the fifteen years during which he honed his techniques and unveiled his distinctive vision, these photobooks were originally released as limited editions in Japan and represent some of the most daring ventures in photographic publishing history. Edited by Mark Holborn, this compilation includes excerpts from Moriyama’s diaries, journals, and memoranda, offering intimate glimpses into the core of his creative process. Presented in a slipcase, this volume is essential for all Moriyama fans and anyone passionate about photography and visual culture.

All About Daido Moriyama

Critical Photojournalism: Contemporary Ethics and Practices

By Tara Pixley, Judy Walgren

Publisher : ‎ Routledge

2025 | 226 pages

An essential introduction to the complexities of visual representation, this book offers a critical new framework for understanding and practicing photojournalism in a global digital context.

Critical Photojournalism guides readers through a variety of ethical, technical and business skills, plus the mental health, self-care and safety considerations necessary to thrive in the field. Drawing on their extensive industry and teaching experience, the authors provide real-world advice on how to navigate the demands of the profession while addressing the impact that photojournalism has on society and ways that photojournalists can mitigate harm. Consideration is given to understanding and disrupting implicit bias and power structures in newsrooms, as well as issues around access, working in breaking news environments and balancing informed consent with varying media laws around the world. In accessible language, this book highlights the importance of collaboration and community engagement in contemporary photojournalism and encourages students to adopt a decolonial approach to their work. Readers will learn to balance the needs for accuracy and thoughtfulness with the priorities of a global, social-media-engaged audience.

This is a key textbook for those seeking a nuanced introduction to visual journalism and/or a fresh approach to their craft. This book is supported by a website which can be accessed at www.criticalphotojournalism.com. The website includes a full-length bonus chapter on video and photojournalism, interviews with professional visual journalists, further tips and tools, and a glossary of key terms.

Through the Ice by Laurie Swope

All About Laurie Swope

Selected Books