Reflections on the Pool. California Designs for Sweimming.

From Sonoma wine country in the north to sundrenched La Jolla in the south, and from Malibu's seaside enclaves to Palm Springs nestled in the desert, California's distinctive regions are home to many of the world's most stunning swimming pools.

Since the ancient times, when manmade baths enhanced the gardens of Egyptian nobles, pools have been built as the ultimate symbols of luxury and leisure, providing a means of capturing one of nature's most elusive elements. Soon after the pool arrived in America in the nineteenth century, California became a mecca for pool owners, where many advances in pool design have been made over the last century.

Reflections on the Pool presents 40 perfect pools in 100 brilliant color photographs. These include the vibrant, Mexican-style architectural design of Ricardo Legorreta and the avant-garde, sensational creations of John Lautner, and illustrate the theories of the renowned landscape designers Thomas Church and Isabelle Greene.

Each section of the book features a type of pool, or an element of pool design. Pools imitating nature, lap pools, architectural or highly ornamented pools are discussed in detail, as well as historic pools such as Hearst's Neptune Pool at San Simeon or Thomas Church's vanguard kidney-bean-shaped design of 1948, and other early California examples that set precedents for the pools of today. The introduction outlines technical aspects of design, and gives a brief history of the pool, including the influence of Hollywood on its popularity.

Whether you own a pool or wish for one, and wherever you live, Reflections on the Pool is a color-infused, fresh, and inspirational display of the boundless possibilities in pool design.

Photographer Melba Levick has published over twenty photographic books and her work has appeared in numerous exhibitions and magazine articles in Europe and America. Much of her work reflects urban and architectural themes. She is based in Paris and Los Angeles.

Cleo Baldon is design director for Galper/Baldon Associates, a landscape architecture firm based in Venice, California. She has designed over 3000 pools in Southern California, and she is credited with the development of the lap pool, and holds a design patent for the contour spa with ergonomic underwater seating.

Ib Melchior is a best-selling author of more than a dozen novels, as well as a motion-picture and television director and script writer. He is co-author with his wife, Cleo Baldon, of Steps & Stairways (Rizzoli, 1989).