In the winter of 2003, Valentine Schmidt photographed ice-hole swimmers in Finland, as twilight became darkness. In the exceedingly hot summer that followed, Esther Teichmann photographed swimmers cooling off at night in a lake in Germany.

The exhibition brings together two photographers, whose very different approaches use photography to frame questions about the elemental pull between the human body and bodies of water.

Valentine Schmidt is represented by the print room of the Photographers' Gallery.

Esther Teichmann is currently completing her MA at the Royal College of Art and is a member of the PhotoDebut photography collective. She has won numerous awards for her photographic work.

minus 7 / plus 18 is curated by Shirley Read