By Trevor H. Smith | Coast Press
When Elizabeth Waterman answered the phone, she was standing inside an aquarium in Chicago. In the background, water tanks hummed in deep indigo tones, pierced by ambient beams that sliced through the dark. The backdrop was fitting: Waterman has spent months traveling between coastal research institutions and inland aquariums, studying the undulating rhythms of pelagic life to craft what has become one of the most conceptually striking bodies of analog work in contemporary photography.
Her latest project, Propulsion—premiering internationally at Photo London ahead of a Spring 2027 monograph with Skira Editore (distributed by Thames & Hudson)—pairs pole performers and deep-sea jellyfish across 48 luminous 35mm diptychs. On paper, placing aerial dance alongside marine cnidarians might seem an unlikely pairing. In execution, Waterman’s frames operate like open windows into parallel universes, capturing two distinct entities locked inside an identical, breathtaking flow state.
The Architecture of the Flow State
Waterman has spent over a decade documenting dancers across the United States, producing celebrated monographs like Moneygame (2021) and Candyland (2024). Through that journey, she established a visual language anchored in trust, autonomy, and radical respect. The women in Waterman’s lens do not exist for voyeuristic consumption; they command reverence through raw physical mastery, isometric strength, and sculptural poise.
In Propulsion, that fierce human discipline finds an organic mirror in the open ocean.
“When I began placing the images side by side, a visual dialogue emerged,” Waterman explains. “A dancer’s arm echoes the tendrils of a jellyfish; the curve of a torso answers the dome of a bell. Meaning happens in the space between the images.”
— Elizabeth Waterman
Side by side, the pairings dissolve traditional divides between human choreography and oceanic drift:
- Suspended Kinesis: A dancer inverted against a vertical brass pole mirrors the bell contraction of a jellyfish propelling itself through dark water—both defying gravity through sustained kinetic tension.
- Sculpted Luminescence: Waterman balances the high-contrast strobes and colored gels of performance spaces against the glowing, natural bioluminescence of aquarium exhibits to create unified chromatic fields.
- Unapologetic Autonomy: Neither the athlete nor the marine creature seeks external validation; both exist completely submerged inside an internal, instinctive rhythm.
From Nightlife Stigma to the Olympic Conversation
Having worked directly alongside movement spaces like Pole to Pole Fitness—which expanded its roots from Woodbridge, New Jersey, into Harlem and Staten Island—I have seen firsthand how transformative this discipline truly is. It empowers women, restores self-worth, and rebuilds confidence from the ground up through the raw synergy of dance and athletic power.
Yet the discipline continues to battle outdated social stigmas that linger from its club roots. Anyone who has stepped foot inside a training studio knows the truth: this is an elite, high-impact athletic sport that rivals the physical demands of Olympic gymnastics or Cirque du Soleil. Suspending one’s entire body in a horizontal lever, maneuvering through aerial silks, executing spins on a dynamic lyra hoop, or transitioning across spinning poles requires world-class grip strength, core stability, and mental discipline.
I have watched world-title competitors like Tarana and numerous national athletes train for major championships in Arizona, pouring hundreds of hours into routines that distill extreme biomechanics into weightless art. Yet, the commercial infrastructure around these athletes remains drastically underfunded.
Decades ago, sports like soccer operated largely on athlete sacrifice, with competitors earning almost nothing. Today, soccer, basketball, and football stars command millions through global sponsorships and television rights. Pole fitness is long overdue for that same institutional backing. With its unmatched blend of isometric force and artistic expression, pole fitness belongs on the world stage—and deserves formal recognition as an Olympic sport.
Marine Kinship and Ecological Empathy
Beyond its commentary on bodily labor and athletic respect, Propulsion carries an urgent conservation message. Jellyfish are often dismissed as mindless, alien, or hazardous pests. By framing their movements through the familiar lines of human athletic grace, Waterman bridges the gap between the viewer and our fragile aquatic ecosystems.
It is an exercise in ecological empathy. By honoring marine life through fine art, the series reminds us that the fundamental mechanics of hydrodynamics, momentum, and breath govern our own bodies just as they govern the sea. In an era marked by ocean warming and ecosystem collapse, Propulsion urges us to extend the same reverence we reserve for elite human performers to the ancient, vulnerable creatures drifting through our oceans.
The Physical Weight of 35mm Film
To honor subjects defined by speed, pulse, and fluid grace, Waterman deliberately avoided the frictionless shortcuts of digital capture. Propulsion was shot entirely on analog 35mm film and brought to life through a proprietary chemical development technique developed over years of studio practice.
Unlike digital sensors that render contrast into sterile pixels, analog film acts as a physical, living participant in the image-making process:
- Halation and Bloom: Stage spotlights and underwater illumination melt into the emulsion grain, creating a painterly atmosphere that digital sensors cannot replicate.
- No Safety Nets: Without an LCD screen to evaluate exposure in real time, the photographer must anticipate the precise peak of an inversion or the exact split-second contraction of a jellyfish bell.
- Archival Significance: Printed as limited-edition Giclée archival pigment prints, the works carry a physical weight that counters the throwaway culture of modern digital feeds.
Bodies in Motion, Bound by Grace
Waterman’s Propulsion succeeds because it never flinches or compromises. It refuses to water down the raw athleticism of exotic dance to appease conservative sensibilities, and it refuses to present marine life as cold scientific data. Instead, it places both worlds on equal footing, illuminating the quiet majesty of bodies moving entirely on their own terms.
Whether gripping steel under club spotlights or contracting through pelagic waters, movement is not an attempt to escape gravity—it is an artful mastery of it. Through Waterman’s analog lens, that realization becomes permanent, luminous, and impossible to ignore.
Exhibition & Publication Details:
- Exhibition: Propulsion by Elizabeth Waterman at Photo London, Somerset House.
- Forthcoming Monograph: Published by Skira Editore, distributed worldwide by Thames & Hudson (Spring 2027; featuring 48 archival diptychs).
- Prints: Museum-grade limited-edition Giclée archival pigment prints.
- Inquiries & Media: elizabethwaterman.com
About Trevor H. Smith
Trevor H. Smith is a writer and media producer covering movement arts, subcultures, and visual media for Coast Press.
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