"FREE FALL," TOM VAN SCHELVEN'S NEW PERSONAL PROJECT FEATURED IN IT'S NICE THAT

"When the pandemic took away many of the civil liberties and luxuries we rely on every day, many of us experienced a similar feeling: loss of control. Dutch-English photographer and filmmaker Tom van Schelven wanted to explore this sensation but in a more visceral sense, so he embarked on 'Free Fall,' a huge project that comprises a vast photographic series, film and digital platform. He recruited 45 volunteers from “all walks of life” to take a daunting five-metre leap off a platform into a pool of water, one by one, and photographed and filmed them doing so. The results are gripping, watching them fall in slow motion, one after the other on a mass scale, and seeing their myriad reactions.

“It’s witnessing the physical state of losing control,” Tom tells It’s Nice That. “Even the participants who were experienced climbers express themselves in unexpected ways, from the facial expressions through to how they move their body.” He adds, on an interesting note, that some of the older generations “actually seemed more at peace with the fall than the younger, more athletic participants.” 

Read the feature and view the project.