Maria Svarbova was born in 1988 in Slovakia. Despite having studied restoration and archeology, her artistic medium is photography. From 2010 to the present, the immediacy of Maria’s photographic instinct keeps on garnering international acclaim and is setting new precedents in photographic expression. She has received several prestigious awards, including the Hasselblad Masters Award, and her exhibitions have placed her among the vanguard of her contemporaries, attracting attention of prominent publications such as Vogue, Forbes, CNN or The Guardian around the world. Her work is a staple of social media’s limelight. Maria’s talent earned her a spot on the coveted 30 under 30 Forbes list as well as a commission for a billboard-sized promotion on the massive Taipei 101 tower in Taiwan. In 2019, Apple commission her to create an exclusive photography series shot by iPhone. This publication is preceded by two books of her photographs: Swimming Pool (2017) and Future Retro (2019). Swimming Pools presents an updated version of the now out-of- stock Swimming Pool, and it features new format, design and content.

Maria’s distinctive style departs from traditional portraiture and focuses on experimentation with space, color and atmosphere. Taking an interest in communist-era architecture and public spaces, Maria transforms each scene with a modern freshness that highlights the depth and range of her creative palette. Carefully composed figures create thematic, dream-like scenes with ordinary objects. Her images hold a silent tension that hints at emergent possibilities under the lilt of clean and smooth surfaces.