Barton Springs Mornings

Stretching roughly three acres long, perpetually 68 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, birth place to Robert Redfern's swimming capabilities, and I'm sure central to a whole slew of Texan folklore, Barton Springs Pool is a landmark and cultural staple nuzzled deep in the downtown landscape of Austin, Texas. Barton Springs is the watering-hole manifestation of Austin's mantra to "Keep Austin Weird" and the techy, hipster boom of the dynamic and diverse influx of residents. Busy paralegals in suits (not of the swimming variety) wandering around the grounds on a lunch break. Topless sun bathers soaking up the rays. Traumatized eleven year olds jumping in the water to hide their eyes. College kids cooling off after a run through Zilker Park. Locals howling like werewolves during a full moon.

A particularly brave and incredible interesting subculture of Barton Springs patrons are the early morning crowd. We're talking 5:00 am early. The vast majority of these folks are faithful to the sunrise swim, coming every day for years on end. Photography wizard, Jordan Vonderhaar, recently went out to capture the stillness and human side of any given dawn at Barton Springs. Enjoy a small collection of his endeavor below, and please go check out his work on Instagram or his website, jordanvonderhaar.com.

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Words: Spencer Roach

Pictures: Jordan Vonderhaar

Explore more of Jordan's work on Instagram: @jordan_vondy