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My first memory of Barton Springs was cold, beautiful, and a lot of crayfish.
I've traveled all over the world, and to have something like this in the middle of a big
city, a natural water space with nice underwater fauna that you can see, is totally rare. It's
a gem. Barton Springs is the first place that I came to in Austin, and I remember looking
out over the pool and just thinking it was absolutely incredible. That was just kind
of the beginning of falling in love with Austin. There's a lot of incredible artists that come
to Barton Springs and just can't help but create while they're here. Submerged is a
participatory photography project with the swimmers of Barton Springs pool. We're asking
people to take photographs of the beautiful underwater garden that is Barton Springs.
We're really interested in seeing the springs the way everyone sees them.
This is the age of photography. Some of the documentaries are about the politics or how
beautiful and spiritual it is, but the other aspect to Barton Springs is you come here
and see people jump in the water and scream because it's cold and it's fun and it's hilarious.
When I saw that happening it's like, yes this is what the springs is about. Fun and beauty
and joy and happiness. It would be different if just were this quiet spiritual place all
the time, but it's not, it's a mix of all those things. Everyone should submit something
to the submerged contest. I love that connection between the sort of manmade and the human
maintained space, with the sort of feeling of wildness, I love swimming around in the
flowers and seeing all of the fish. It's just this incredible experience that you won't
get anywhere else. I hope that people see what Barton Springs brings to the community.
Some people come here just for their lap swimming. They get here in the morning, they swim their
laps and they leave. And then there's other people that just come here with their friends
to sunbathe. I think it's a really personal thing what people get out of it. I want them
to feel like they just jumped in the springs. I want them to feel refreshed and experience
the visual lushness of Barton Springs. I want them to have good conversations with people
that don't interact or know each other and get them to see Barton Springs through each
other's eyes. It's going to be one heck of a party.