one foot on the bottom is about childhood or the space that childhood once occupied. Using family Kodachrome slides from the 1950s and ’60s taken by her late mother Evelyn, and her contemporary photographs, Mary Macpherson creates a portrait of family holidays by the beach, lake and river. The book is poetic and unexpected and placing the past with the present, so time folds in on itself. The result is an evocative representation of childhood, the power of photographs and our love of spending time by water throughout Aotearoa/New Zealand. The book includes a lyrical essay by Mary.