"Photography is my passion, obsession, a way to catch my breath. This is the part of me where I love to get lost. When it consumes me, I create my own versions of reality. Visions from my head, remembered by digital memory and postprocessed in Photoshop, become images. Raw files are like notes that only start to make up history after editing. Painting with darkness and light is a therapy and a kind of cleansing for me, getting rid of the deposits that have been in my head for a long time. The protagonists I create are full of extremes and like any human or non-human being, they can be beautiful or repugnant, joyful and suffering, yet simple and complex. Visual hallucinations often appear in my head and at the same time in photography, showing exactly what is hidden in the mind of the viewer. Childhood nightmares, phantasmagories and aeons of dreams that remain in the subconscious of each of us, adults or children, blend into the image like an enchanted marriage, creating a reflection of who I really am and maybe who are you."
In her photographic work, she addresses important issues, focusing on a woman’s right to self-determination, decision-making about her own body, and choices associated with it. Through her frames, she narrates about emotions, depression, loneliness as a place of existence, as well as anger, fear, and love anchored in the surrounding reality. Her creativity employs the language of dreams and soma, transforming the body from the subject of art into its agent. This fluid interplay of thoughts, dreams, and reality creates an incredibly intimate depiction of the world, which the author communicates through her photographic sensitivity.
Šantavá has received numerous prestigious awards, including a Gold Medal at the Budapest International Foto Awards 2023 and a Silver Prize at the World Photo Annual 2023. Her work has been exhibited in renowned galleries across Europe, including Paris, Milan, Budapest, Athens, and Bratislava. In 2024, she presented a solo exhibition at the Slovak Institute in Berlin.
Selected awards & exhibitions
Gold Medal – Budapest International Foto Awards 2024
Silver Prize – World Photography Awards 2023
Finalist – ImageNation Paris, London, New York
Exhibitions: OFF Bratislava, One Art Space NYC, ImageNation Milano
Publications: L’Oeil de la Photographie, Art Weekenders, Trend.sk
Slovak Institute in Berlin: Solo Exhibition 2024