All too often, we reduce our built environment to its functional abilities and its beauty. But sometimes these spaces give us more–they allow us to tap into memories, bringing forth some souvenir of the past. That, at least, is how the photographer Brad Walls sees pools. For Walls, “they can evoke the smell of [his] favorite food, or resurrect memories of [his] holidays.” It’s fitting, then, that the latest selection for Just Booked, our series on gorgeous new travel-related coffee table books is his new tome, Pools From Above, published by Rizzoli.
Over the course of 89 photographs, Walls introduces us to pools from Australia, Bali, Mexico, Florid, and Southern California. Some are painfully lux–the camera’s gaze here is sometimes surreptitious, sometimes gawking. Other pools have stray leaves carelessly floating, and one has geometric tilework so dizzying you’ll have to blink a couple times.
The book is a light one–less than 200 pages–but packs a wanderlust punch. Flipping through, you’ll be hard pressed not to daydream about a sleek pool, perhaps overlooking a beach on the Pacific Ocean.
