Maria Svarbova is a Slovak photographer, born in 1988. She studied archaeology and restoration, before taking up photography in 2010. She began her best-known series of photographs, Swimming Pools, in 2014, shooting in Zlaté Moravce, her hometown. The series features swimmers in abandoned swimming pools and pastel-colored pools of Soviet architecture.
Maria Svarbova‘s highly saturated scenes seem to capture avatars in dream worlds, but each is informed by real architecture and settings from the socialist era.
As a self-taught photographer since 2010, Maria Svarbova became internationally renowned for her series “In the pool” (2014 – ongoing), which won her the 2018 Hasselblad Masters competition.
In 2019, his retro-tone formalist photographs of bathers in old abandoned pools across Slovakia were featured in a solo exhibition at the American Minnesota Marine Art Museum.
Maria Svarbova is known for her cinematic style and polished, highly controlled compositions that synchronize human forms with the dark lines of built environments – a reflection of her studies in art conservation and archaeology.
A keen documentor of Soviet architecture, Maria Svarbova is particularly interested in the swimming pools of thirteen Slovak cities, which she has illustrated in a symmetrical, hypnotic art project.
Soberly entitled “Swimming pool”, this multi-award-winning series of photographs is a brilliant blend of emotion and poetry. She has taken particular care to select a number of swimmers who are in total harmony with these vintage settings. Whether it’s their coordination or details such as their swimsuits, which blend incredibly well with the setting, the young photographer delivers spellbinding subjects.
The “In the pool” series is Maria Svarbova’s biggest concept to date, which has brought her to prominence and attention, a project begun in 2014 and continuing to develop to this day.
Triggered by a search for interesting places, his fascination with space and public places has helped develop his visual style.
The sterile, geometric beauty of old swimming pools sets the tone for these photographs. Each of them depicts a different swimming pool, usually built during the socialist era, in different parts of Slovakia.
There’s an almost cinematic quality to the highly controlled landscapes Maria captures.
Frozen in composition, the swimmers are as smooth and cold as swimming-pool tiles.
The characters are mid-movement, but they’re not playful or happy.
The artificial detachment created by Maria‘s visual vision provides a unique visual pleasure, unattainable in real life.
The colors vibrate softly in a dreamlike atmosphere. Despite the retro decor, the images also evoke a futuristic feeling, as if they had been taken in a completely foreign place.
There’s no disturbing emotion, no individuality in their stillness.
Comme à ton habitude toujours merveilleux ma très chère Véronique.
Gros bisous tendresses. 💋💞❤️💞💋
merci Yves
Beau travail sur les ombres les mouvements les amplitudes les organisations de couleurs…en plus l’artiste est belle ce qui ne gâche rien, au contraire !
merci
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