There’s a moment between the sauna and the cold plunge where everything else falls away. You step out of heat and into winter, and the body responds before the mind can.

Photographing sauna and cold plunge culture in Minnesota felt less about wellness and more about ritual. These moments are physical and unguarded. Steam clings to skin. Breath sharpens in the cold. Winter becomes part of the experience, from frozen lakes to the quiet walk back to warmth.

What drew me in wasn’t just the shock of cold water, but what follows it. The stillness. The shared silence. The understanding among people who have just been through the same thing.

Here, this practice isn’t about extremes. It’s simply a way of being present.