The photography of Maria Svarbova

February 24, 2017 1:59 PM

Maria Svarbova is a Slovakian photographer who specializes in white and pastel compositions with bright accents, featuring people in carefully static and sometimes eerily affectless poses. The Dining Room. Pool Without Water. Healthy Teeth, Good Mood.

Standing apart somewhat from the rest and visually remarkable in its own right is (n.b. nudity) God's Mirror.
posted by cortex (6 comments total)

They have a slight air of an attempt by Replicants to create documentation of "daily life."

The photo of the guy with the cat in the dentist's chair seemed like it could have been staged by Bowie back in the mid-70s.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:10 PM on February 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

These are extraordinary, thank you.
posted by chavenet at 2:49 PM on February 24, 2017

Eerie and disturbing.

I realize the Mirror photos were of young, fit people, but I didn't like how they were the stereotypical "beautiful youth" as well as the feeling they had been dehumanized/debased somehow.
posted by BlueHorse at 4:07 PM on February 24, 2017

Oddly disturbing.
posted by sammyo at 4:47 PM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

There's something about The Dining Room that puts me in mind of Dogtooth.
posted by lagomorphius at 7:48 AM on February 25, 2017

There's something oddly dead about many photographic models. It's so pervasive of photography of people hired for the purpose (fashion photography particularly), that I almost don't notice it any more, until I see a shot like the self-portrait at the end of Healthy Teeth, Good Mood, which is finally someone who's alive, albeit that that person is the photographer herself.

I mean, I'm sure it's what is required, I'm just not sure why a lot of the time. Here, certainly, it lends an air of uneasiness to the proceedings.
posted by Grangousier at 11:46 AM on February 25, 2017 [1 favorite]