1990, Anna Fárová (ENG)

Miro Švolík is a poet and for his poems he uses photography. He belongs to the generation of young photographers who came from Slovakia to study in Prague. Arriving in Prague in the early 1980s they were a source of inspiration with a totally new spirit. They worked with the photographic image without any restrictions, and with total freedom and independence. Together they began a new wave of Czechoslovak creatively staged or manipulated photography. For Švolík, it was most important to recreate a very special world of humor and fantasy. He enjoys staging his friends, to compose images with many little human figures photographed from above, changing the scale so these bodies together draw a new picture or a new human form. It’s like a painting by Arcimboldo, who used vegetables, flowers, and other materials to create a human face. In Švolík’s assemblages he sometimes creates a whole body, sometimes a story, with a poetical title, for example, “After my death I went to heaven and from there I now look down on all of you.” His inspiration is fresh, like a Slovak song or pure water falling from the high Tatra Mountains.

Anna Fárová

New York, March 28, 1990

(for the ICP, Sixth Annual Infinity Awards)










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