“I must go down to the seas again…” Or the pond. Or the river. Or, failing all else, the local swimming centre. When the summer heat rolls around, people everywhere hear the same call as John Masefield once did – and head en masse for the nearest body of water.

In this special series, renowned photographers and writers from around the world meditate on our relationship with the element. They capture our stolen moments of leisure, document the seascape of loss and probe our universal fear of what lies beneath.

Water is the most mischievous of forces and, yet, it calls us back summer after summer. Down to the seas we go. Again. And again.