Liz Corman: Olympic synchronized swimmers from below
Synchronized swimming, a sport I have been involved with for more than 20 years, has served as a foundational element for much of my work in photography. I have been able to fuse my extensive training in synchro with a Fine Art education, where I honed in my extremely niche point of view. Synchro combines gymnastics, dance, and swimming; individually beautiful, together extraordinary. Similarly, my love of synchro and photography, and the transference of one passion to another, has been an extraordinary decade long experience, and I feel I have just started.
In the last two years, I have been afforded the opportunity to work with the elite of USA Synchro and be a part of the athletes’ journey to the FINA World Championships and the Olympics (including traveling to Rio for the Games). Working with the highest caliber athletes in the US has opened me to a prolific period of exploration, sometimes dependent on the project at hand as in the case of the 2016 National Team and Olympic Duet where I felt compelled to present more heroic and patriotic imagery. In contrast, the photos of the Mixed Duets, all with Bill May as the male partner, have much more artistic license to them. Unlike the Olympic Duet, all of the partnerships of the Mixed Duets are based in Las Vegas where they perform in shows such as O by Cirque du Soliel.
Like so many photographers, I hope to share that which I cannot express with words alone. The art of movement in the water is something that I feel to my core; a sentiment I most commonly share with my models. I hope that through my work, I am able to elevate the sport that has given me so much in my life and bring it’s undeniable beauty to a broad audience.
Find more of Liz Corman’s underwater photography work here.
Find more information on Bill May here, including some amazing shots by John Huet.
Find more information on the US Duet’s performance in Rio here.