Slovakian photographer Mária Švarbová’s was one of two artists selected as the inspiration behind Delpozo designer Josep Font’s runway at New York Fashion Week last fall. After Švarbová’s painterly photographs hung on his mood board in Spain, models walked in the same pastel-tinted palette. Her work is collected in the book Swimming Pool, published today by New Heroes & Pioneers, which features meticulously staged and styled portraits of swimmers in ten Slovakian swimming pools that were built during the Soviet era. She started the project in 2014 after noticing the stark white tiles and “No Diving” signs in her local pool. She has said that at the time of the building’s construction, “swimming was more social duty than sport.”
Švarbová creates overexposed pastel colors that look like paint pigments. The dreamy images merge with precise geometric designs that were characteristic of the country’s Socialist days. Click through for a preview of the book.
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From Mária Švarbová’s Swimming Pool photo series.
From Mária Švarbová’s Swimming Pool photo series.
From Mária Švarbová’s Swimming Pool photo series.
From Mária Švarbová’s Swimming Pool photo series.
From Mária Švarbová’s Swimming Pool photo series.
From Mária Švarbová’s Swimming Pool photo series.
From Mária Švarbová’s Swimming Pool photo series.
From Mária Švarbová’s Swimming Pool photo series.
Book Cover
Swimming Pool by Mária Švarbová, published by New Heroes & Pioneers Publishing.
