Water-Skier on a Lake, United States, 1950s

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Water-Skier on a Lake, United States, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

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Water-Skier on a Lake, United States, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1950–1959

AA-2026-CF2382

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Water skiing arrived in the postwar American consciousness as the sport that proved you had both a motorboat and a friend willing to drive it, which in the 1950s was a meaningful social credential. This man is riding a single broad ski — the mono-ski was still something of a show-off's choice, requiring the kind of balance that took a full summer to develop and that one demonstrated at every opportunity — gripping the tow handle with the focused concentration of someone who knows he is being photographed and intends to look competent. The forested hills rolling low across the far shore place this on one of the inland lakes of the northeastern United States, the kind of lake where families rented cabins and motor boats were the luxury item that organised the entire week. Water skiing had been a novelty act in the 1930s and a military man's recreation in the 1940s; by the time this was taken it had become a standard feature of the American summer, something every reasonably fit adult was expected to attempt at least once before they were allowed to relax in a lawn chair. The camera was pointed back from the tow boat, which means someone on that boat thought this moment worth preserving, and they were not wrong.

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