“The hotel was quite plain looking,” remarks Handwerk, “and I’m not surprised that it has been destroyed.” Ditto for the swimming pool, though good photographers always find a way to delve beneath the surface and bring to light an otherwise unremarkable subject’s hidden attributes. In the case of this abandoned swimming pool, let’s be thankful Handwerk does the diving so we won’t have to!
Considered as a microcosm of some unforeseen future apocalypse, the abandoned swimming pool epitomizes the essential fragility of mankind’s works: without people to maintain them, decay quickly sets in and their former luster cracks, flakes and peels away.
The contrast between the swimming pool’s chronic and irreversible decline with the timeless beauty of neighboring Chesapeake Bay is telling – the latter did just fine without us and will continue to sustain itself long after we’re gone.
As for the abandoned hotel swimming pool, its time in the sun’s spotlight is rapidly nearing an end, to be recalled only by the fading memories of those who once enjoyed it and through Joel Handwerk’s ethereal and evocative photos. (All images © Joel Handwerk and Lithium Photo).


