The Swimmer

by
• S.J. Butler

images by
• Steffi Pusch

Short story by S.J. Butler

Photographs by Steffi Pusch

The Swimmer tells the story of a writer working in her room overlooking a river during a long, hot summer. Overcoming her initial fear of the river with its power and strength to overwhelm a swimmer, she steps into the water and into an unexplored realm of emotion. ‘Words and pictures swim together’ in the cooling water past tree-lined banks, under a bridge and around curving bends . . . so much is concentrated into this depiction of a self-revelatory experience.

Later. A richly inventive photographer reads the story and is inspired to create a suite of images to accompany it, employing both ancient and modern photographic techniques.

At this point the book designer/printer feels that the story’s sense of flow and the photographer’s images, which float as if in the water alongside the swimmer, could happily be brought together in a book where type has been chosen for slow contemplative reading and the cover design places the whole in the heart of nature.

The story curls across the page slowing the reader to the pace of the swimmer. Emotions crowd in as initial fear moves to exhilaration, apprehension turns to pleasure.

S.J. Butler’s words and Steffi Pusch’s pictures together create an atmosphere in which the reader too can share the emotion of the story. They each write a preface to introduce their approach to storytelling and its presentation through photography.

The Swimmer first appeared in The Warwick Review and was then selected for The Best British Short Stories 2011 published by Salt. This is its first publication together with Steffi Pusch’s photographs.

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