Sports: Synchronised Swimming Goes Scary!

The Austrian duet in their bat costumes

Perhaps you might think synchronised swimming has always been scary, with its exaggerated grins and wide eyes. You might even wonder why I'm writing about synchronised swimming - or the Olympics in general - in a horror / spooky-themed blog, especially when I don't really care about sports. 

The Russian duet mid-move

You might not even consider synchronised swimming to be a sport (though, if that's the case, I'd like to see you train for 10 hours a day and swim upside down while making everything look effortless). Anyway, the truth is that I'd never watched this event before last week and I wouldn't be writing about it but for the fact that there were some decidedly spooky teams in the Duets Free Routine competition. 

The Russian duet at the beginning of their routine

The Russian pair swam a doll / puppet themed routine, using music from the films Suspiria, Amelie, and Sleepy Hollow. Considering synchronised swimming evolved from "water ballet" the Suspira Theme by Goblin being used is somewhat amusing / appropriate (if you've ever seen Suspiria, you'll understand, and if you haven't seen it...why the hell not!?).

The Brazilian duet after their "Human Body" routine

Then there was the Brazilian duo who chose The Human Body as their theme and wore anatomical costumes, complete with brain-print swimming caps! There was also a yellow skeleton print on the back as well, just to further emphasize the theme.

The back of the Brazillians' costumes

The Austrians also had a spooky theme, though I'm not entirely sure what it was. Their costumes featured big bats on the front, with one of the wing-tips curving around into a wolf head on the back. There were also a few smaller bats and a full moon on the back, as well as a bat hair accessory. 

The back of the Austrian costume

Apart from that, a large part of their swim was set to Mussorgsky's Night on Bare Mountain, which is about a witches' Sabbath, and there was also a random cackle in the middle of the routine as well. Sadly, neither Brazil nor Austria made it into the final, but Russia eventually won gold in the duet competition. Hurray for Olympic spookiness! 

Links:

Official London 2012 Synchronised Swimming Duets Page

BBC Sport - Duet Free Routine Preliminaries (video - all screenshots taken from this video)

More screenshots after the cut below↓

Photography: Andreas Waldschuetz

An image from 'VAMPARA', featuring the fashion of Ara Jo

The subject of this post is Andreas Waldschuetz - a talented fashion and art photographer/filmaker from Vienna, Austria. As well as woking in Vienna, Waldschuetz has also traveled a great deal, which often is reflected in his photographs, and he has carried out projects in video and photography in various places around the world including: the US, UK, France, Germany and South Africa.

Not all of Waldschuetz's work is dark and spooky and the fact that it doesn't not adhere to one specific theme makes it more interesting.  However, he does create some beautifully macabre and strange images and I'm going to post some for you to enjoy here.

A photograph from 'Cooky Spooky Sherwood Lodge'

If you don't like portrait or fashion photography or heavily edited art images, his productions may not be for you. However, personally I find them to be well-planned, skillfully shot and very creative, and the stories behind each collection of visuals are also intruiging.

To view more of his work and stay up to date with his activities, you can visit the following websites:

Official Website
Behance Network Portfolio

Official Facebook Page

All photographs are copyright Andreas Waldschuetz.
Please do not repost without permission.

More photos after the jump: