Photographer spends over a decade documenting a community swimming creek near the Hudson
Photographer Caleb Stein has spent more than ten years returning each summer to photograph a community swimming spot in Poughkeepsie, New York. His work has now been published as a book, with an accompanying exhibition opening in New York on 10 September.
For more than a decade, photographer Caleb Stein has returned every summer to the same spot: a communal swimming creek called Wappinger Creek, near the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie, New York. His long-running project has resulted in a book, "Down by the Hudson", published by Palo Press, along with an accompanying exhibition opening in New York on 10 September.
Over the years, Stein has photographed a wide range of people who visit the creek — families, friends, students and locals. His images include visitors from Jamaica, a former marine who returned to the water after his service, and groups of friends enjoying a swim together. Some photographs capture lighter, playful moments, while others touch on harder experiences, such as a young man mourning his mother's death in a motorcycle accident, which happened the same day the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade.
One striking image was taken during a torrential downpour, with Stein protecting his non-waterproof camera using a torn plastic bag; the camera broke in the process, but the photograph survived. In another, he used a circular mirror painted with a landscape, positioning it against a tree scarred by a bear to layer multiple reflected and real landscapes into a single frame.
The project also includes a personal connection: Andrea, whom Stein met as a student at Vassar College, first introduced him to the creek and has since played a key role in shaping the project through editing and advice.
Stein describes the work as a personal record of a place where, for a while, the wider world goes quiet. He notes that Wappinger Creek takes its name from a Native American word, and reflects on the generations of people who have rested and fallen in love at the site over the centuries.
