‘The Watering Hole’ is a series made at the tail-end of my two years photographing in Poughkeepsie, a small town in upstate NY. Right off 55 behind the Overlook drive-in there’s a faded path with overgrown grass leading to a clearing by the creek. It’s a place where people go to cool off and let their guard down. I’ve swam there for years but never photographed until this July when I went almost every day for three weeks. I photographed the swimmers – college students, immigrants, old-timers, children. I made these pictures as a goodbye of sorts to Poughkeepsie, and as a counter-point to the life I saw and photographed in its downtown area where I lived after university.

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Caleb Stein (b. 1994) graduated from Vassar College in 2017. He worked for Bruce Gilden (2015-18) and was a 2017 runner-up for the Burn Emerging Photographer Fund. To see more of Caleb Stein’s work visit — Website / Instagram.