Nike Swimm linked with artist Tayler Prince-Fraser for a UK based initiative – based around a short film and a photography exhibition – exploring the socio-cultural barriers which stop many black people from swimming in a bid to help stop swimming pool discrimination and bring an end to the stigma.
The campaign revolved around a short film called ‘Fear Of The Water’ (originally debuting in February) which was directed and shot by Prince-Fraser and a two-day public photo exhibition at The Black and White Store in London’s Soho in October called ‘Deep Is The Water’.
The short film includes the narrated emotions a young Black boy goes through when entering a swimming pool, while Nike and Tayler Prince-Fraser leverage film and photography, a physical gallery, digital platforms, social media and PR to address the issue.
Fear Of The Water from Tayler Prince-Fraser on Vimeo.
Shot on a UK beach during the morning sunrise, the photography series captures young Black men experiencing the liberating capacities of open water swimming – a feeling that the campaign’s subjects experienced first-hand.
“Standing on a chalk boulder at 5am watching the sunrise was very memorable,” said one of the campaign’s stars/subjects Tisloh Danboyi. “It was an experience that opened my eyes to the joy of water”.
‘Deep Is The Water’, a two-day public exhibition at The Black and White Store in Soho (at 59 Greek Street) on 7 and 8 October, aims to not only offer a platform for further conversation, but a physical space for a wider audience to connect to the team’s work in real-time.
Alongside the images themselves, the space will also host a panel discussion involving key Black leaders in the swim community – including Nat and Peigh of swim collective Swim Dem Crew and Omie Dale of SWIM UNITY – to share their experiences and discuss the themes broached in the exhibited images.
The art-led, brand backed exploration of the topic found that many of the reasons behind the swimming disenfranchisement experienced by the UK’s Black communities are ‘rhizomatic and varied’ in nature and not always directly linked: ranging from financial barriers to a lack of Black swimming role models at the top of the sport.
“People are inspired by individuals that look like them, sound like them and live like them,” said Prince-Taylor. “This project was about engaging a disenfranchised community with swimming, and in order to do so, we needed to ensure that those same individuals could look at the boys in the campaign and think ‘that could be me’.”
“I remember hearing the expression ‘Deep is the Water’ from a family member,” continued Prince-Taylor discussing the campaign and exhibition’s evocative title. “I can’t remember who, or where we were, but I distinctly remember that feelings of apprehension and fear were palpable… it was a feeling that was reflective of the wider families’ attitude towards water – it was something to be wary of, and not to be fooled with. It was almost as if the water had become a being in itself; one that was wildly unpredictable. One thing I don’t want people to take away from the campaign is that this is a Black swimming campaign when it is simply not. It is a swimming campaign with a cast that provides a sense of familiarity to a community.
“The combined ‘Fear of the Water / Deep Is The Water’ project is a powerful approach to the topic and, with director and photographer Tayler Prince-Fraser we hope to do something about this inequality,” said Nike Swim Marketing Manager Isabella Di Giusepbhkpe.
“Putting young Black men at the forefront was paramount,” continued Di Giuseppe. “Our first point of call was to cast a group of young men who looked similar to the communities we are trying to engage with. Visibility holds immense potential and significance to be a catalyst for wider change within sport. We hope this is just the next chapter in many more stories of water, cherished and shared from athlete to athlete.”
The campaign photography and creative direction was by Tayler Prince-Fraser with production by Alex Ayodele-Otele, styling from Shaniqua Christian and the talent included Talent Osman Jalloh, Tisloh Danboyi, Blu Edmunds and Jordan Aki-Sawyerr.
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Sport England figures estimate that 95% of Black adults and 80% of Black children can’t swim and this project was also partly emerged from a 2021 YPulse’s BIPOC study which found that only 2% of regular swimmers in England are Black.
Nike, as one of the UK brand’s ranked highest for ‘reflecting diversity’, felt it could help address the issue of sporting discrimination and reach influencers and younger generations with a message proving that the joy of water is for everyone.
As a sport and a life-saving skill, swimming is something some segments of society take for granted as a relatively common-place sport, an important skill to learn in one of the public pools within relatively easy reach in the UK. This encourages a mindset that it is an activity and a sport that’s open and accessible to all.
But closer investigation reveals a different story emerges. Swimming largely fails to represent the whole general population and Black communities in particular are woefully underrepresented in the sport.
There is little doubt that traditional swimming campaigns rarely feature young Black men or members of other minorities, although some sportswear brands are finally beginning to address this issue in campaigns such as Adidas ‘Beyond The Surface’ and Nike’s campaigns with the ‘Swim Dem Crew’.
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