When visiting the Greek island of Corfu in the winter of 2015, Bernadette Mergaerts noticed that, in spite of the cold, many people were swimming at various places along the shoreline. All of the swimmers were adults, some of them elderly. She was impressed by how they seemed to find peace in the Ionian Sea. In the years following, Mergaerts learned more about the lives of these winter swimmers. About how they live day to day, and their shared concerns. With sensuous images, she shows the vitality and decline of nature as well as the bathers. In witnessing their daily swims, their immersion in the elements, she documents this ritual celebration of the winter season.
128 pages, 21 x 28 cm, softcover, The Eriskay Connection (Breda).