H2O
-"H2O"- (Bulfinch Press, Release Date: November 2007) is a breathtaking feat of underwater photography and a visionary celebration of movement and form. Working with uncommonly graceful and aquatically gifted dancers, models, and performers, photographer Howard Schatz has found joyous inspiration underwater. The images in H2O take advantage of water's unique properties- light, clarity, buoyancy, and reflectivity-to create a delightfully serene and otherworldly aesthetic. At once uncanny, lithe, athletic, and mysterious, the figures in Schatz's photographs transform the pool into studio and stage. Howard Schatz first established a following in the 1990s with two collections of underwater photography, Water Dance and Pool Light. With H2O, Schatz takes the magic of weightlessness and the beauty of dance to new heights. Whether in single portraits or as part of a larger, spectacular ballet, his dancers are as utterly elegant as they are phantasmagorical. They appear before the camera as though borrowed from a dream.
In H2O, water figures into an artistic equation that allows it to become the partner to Schatz's subjects. Ripples bend light, scrims of bubbles surround swimmers, and undulating reflections are cast down from the mirrored "ceiling"of the pool surface, enabling Schatz to create two pictures in one-a realistic image
and its more figurative, fantastical opposite. The result is an impressionistic interplay of self and mirror, light and shadow, suspension and motion. The photographs in H2O were made primarily as Schatz's personal artistic endeavor but were also inspired by assignments from Cirque du Soleil, the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, and a range of corporate clients. An introduction and running narrative by noted photography writer Owen Edwards chart the evolution of Schatz's technique and artistic vision.
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Praise for H2O.
Mr. Schatz's underwater photographs..explore the romantic, liberating qualities of being in a buoyant, otherworldly environment...capturing what happens to the human body when it’s submerged in water. Not the wrinkled fingertips and bloodshot eyes, but the dreamlike freedom, the weightless joy.
-New York Times
For underwater photographer Howard Schatz, the deep end of the pool is a working studio. Schatz uses the flowing properties of water to create gorgeous pictures that are a tribute to movement and form, pairing models and dancers with water scenes. The result is a luminous, surreal world that is artful and gorgeous. This is some of Schatz's best underwater portraiture, and it's pure bliss.
-Miami Herald
Schatz's book, H2O, is a stunning underwater monograph.
-American Photo
Absolutely the best at his craft.
-Digital Photo Pro
(T)he pictures are...stunningly beautiful...extremely well-crafted.
-Luerzer's Archive
PRAISE FOR HOWARD SCHATZ'S POOL LIGHT AND WATER DANCE
"Luminous, languid, and dreamy."
-Life
"Schatz's watery visions take us out of our daily routine-and put us in touch with another, more timeless reality."
-San Francisco Examiner
"Gorgeous women. Mr. Schatz throws them into the deep end, sometimes clothed, usually not, sometimes posed alluringly . . . sometimes engaged in mysterious activities."
-New York Times
