You can’t argue with 118 Brummies in their swimsuits: Attilio Fiumarella’s best photograph

‘I was thinking about the Terracotta Army when I took this shot of Birmingham swimmers in their local pool, which faced closure.

They had to stand there for an hour, waiting for the sun to come out’ I took this image in Birmingham on 20 July 2014 – part of my first professional photography project.

I had moved to the city in 2013 and I would pass this building every day on the bus on my way to the city centre.

I remember looking at the facades and being impressed and intrigued by the three different entrances – what were once the first class, second class and women’s entrances. One day I decided to get off the bus and find out what the building was.

The door was open, and a nice lady welcomed me in and started to explain its history. It is the Moseley Road Baths, an Edwardian-era community building.

In 2014 the second pool was still operating but the gala pool, where I took this image, was already empty. The building was in need of restoration and, without funding, the council planned to shut it down for good.

The woman I met there told me lots of stories about the place – people who had come to learn to swim, how it had served as a casualty station during the second world war, and

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  You can’t argue with 118 Brummies in their swimsuits: Attilio Fiumarella’s best photograph