Everybody Happy, Mostly Naked

The bathtub is an underrated private universe. Fill it past the reasonable line, add too much foam, put something to eat on the rim—chips, chocolate, whatever’s within reach—and you’ve built a small civilization that the rest of the day can’t touch. Some of my best hours have been spent in one.

Photographer Samantha Fortenberry seems to share that conviction. Her series Suds and Smiles puts strangers in bathtubs—naked, surrounded by props—and photographs whatever comes out. Sometimes it’s cookies balanced on the rim. Sometimes books floating in the water. Sometimes confetti. The mood sits somewhere between anarchic birthday party and genuine, unguarded peace.

Looking at these photographs, I want to cancel everything and sink into hot water until I lose track of the time. There’s something quietly pointed about Fortenberry’s premise: strip someone down, surround them with small pleasures, and see what the camera finds. Turns out the answer is usually happiness—unpretentious, slightly absurd, completely real.