Michael Joseph (1941-) - Playboy Pool Ladies - resting between takes

Pool Ladies Resting by the Clapham Common Pool’s Side
Photograph taken in the 1980s

Photographer: Michael Joseph
Medium: Original hand-printed warm-toned darkroom photograph
Signature: Signed and titled in ink on the front
Bespoke mount by professional framer, taped as fitted
Series: From the Clapham Common swimming pool series

This beautifully observed photograph captures a moment of pause within Michael Joseph’s celebrated Clapham swimming pool series of the 1980s. A line of women rest at the pool’s edge, half-submerged, bodies angled and loosely entwined: adjusting caps, touching water, meeting one another’s gaze, or momentarily withdrawing into thought. The discipline of synchronised movement has softened, but its structure still quietly governs the scene.

Joseph positions the viewer directly along the poolside, allowing the eye to travel rhythmically through repeating forms — thighs, torsos, numbered blocks — punctuated by the gentle disruption of water and reflection. Limbs intersect, curves echo one another, and the geometry of the pool asserts a calm, measured order. Though the swimmers are no longer braced to dive, a physical awareness lingers: posture, balance and control remain subtly present.

In this body of work, Joseph’s admiration for Bill Brandt is clearly felt. Like Brandt, he treats the human figure not as portrait subject but as sculptural form. Bodies become compositional elements, negative space is weighted with precision, and architecture is used as a rigorous framing device. The tonal restraint and classical balance elevate the image beyond reportage, placing it firmly within a modernist photographic tradition.

What distinguishes this photograph from Joseph’s more widely known, high-energy group scenes — musicians, performers, banquets and nightlife — is its intimacy and restraint. There is no spectacle here, only presence. The women appear self-contained and unselfconscious, observed with clarity and respect rather than drama.

This is an authentic vintage darkroom print, signed and titled by the photographer. The verso retains its original studio label from Michael Joseph Pictures Ltd, Clapham, featuring Joseph’s portrait and address, along with period tape marks from the original mounting — quiet but important evidence of working practice and provenance.

The photograph possesses the rare quality of feeling both formally resolved and emotionally open. It offers not only a finished composition, but a glimpse into the rhythm of the shoot itself — the pause, the breath, the human moment that exists alongside discipline and control.

A subtle, assured work that reveals a more contemplative side of one of Britain’s most significant post-war photographers.

The piece will be packed with great care and devotion and dispatched promptly, ensuring safe arrival.

Offered by the photographer's daughter, with close attention to the preservation and placement of this one-off historical print.

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