A Smaller Splash

"The average L.A. pool, if left uncovered, loses roughly 20,000 gallons of water a year to evaporation; on an annual basis that's far, far less than Angelenos spend watering their lawns, but hardly negligible either. As UC Santa Barbara media studies professor Dick Hebdige puts it in the catalog for 'Backyard Oasis,' a 2012 photography show at the Palm Springs Art Museum, the swimming pool's bright symbolism has dramatically faded thanks to 'a growing awareness of the finite nature of water as a natural resource.'
"'The private pool,' he writes, 'is well on its way to outré.'"


Christopher Hawthorne in the Los Angeles Times discusses the swimming pool in Southern California.