The Bathers with Ruth Kaplan
The Bathers with Ruth Kaplan
Join us via Zoom on Wednesday, November 18th, at 7 pm EST
Ruth Kaplan’s The Bathers explores the balance between the intimate and the communal in the shared experience of public bathing. From 1991 to 2002, Ruth made 7 trips, travelling to California, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Romania, France, Denmark, Iceland and Morocco, photographing bathers in hot springs, bathhouses and spas.
Ruth will share her early inspiration for the project, the challenges of long-term photographic documentary work, the experiential aspect of being both a bather and a voyeur simultaneously, and how she brought the work into the world through exhibitions, a book, magazine articles, and other forms of installation over an extended period of time.
Together, we will explore photographic issues such as photographing strangers in environments that are private, the balance between participant and voyeur, the impact of a photographer’s gaze, and the practical challenges of analog processes. We will also consider how water is related to rituals, body issues, gender, culture, shame, physicality/transcendence, as well as a sense of discovery.
Content Disclosure: This artist talk will include thoughtfully rendered photographs that feature adult content. You must be 18 years or older to attend. Additionally, our community conversation will include sensitive topics such as voyeurism, consent, gender, body issues, and shame.
Ruth Kaplan is a documentary-based photographer whose work explores a variety of themes such as the social behaviour of bathers in communal hot springs and bathhouses, participants in rituals of spirituality and more recently the transient status surrounding refugees seeking asylum in Canada while living in shelters in Buffalo, Detroit, Toronto and Fort Erie, through photographs, audio recordings and videos reflecting the slow passage of time within this extended limbo. She has recently completed an exploration of the Roxham Road border-crossing straddling New York and Quebec, including soundscapes from the site, interviews with asylum-seekers, and photographs of the diverse forces intersecting at this tiny spot. She is a recipient of numerous grants and awards and currently teaches at OCAD University and Toronto Metropolitan University. Her first book, Bathers, was published by Damiani, and Crossing, her next book, will be published by Kehrer Verlag, available spring 2026.
Instagram: @ruthkaplanfoto
Website: https://www.ruthkaplanphoto.com/
Ruth Kaplan, Budapest
Ruth Kaplan, Saturnia
Ruth Kaplan, Thunder Bay
