Magia! New Futures of Photography @ MarinMOCA
What is magic? Do we still believe in it? Since its invention, photography has often been described as a magical act. The new medium could fix a fleeting moment in time onto a blank surface. Early viewers experienced photographs with awe as they encountered what felt like an alchemical or otherworldly conjuring.
Today, in our era of information overload, have we lost this sense of wonder, or has magic simply changed forms? Artists across history have engaged photography as a site of illusion, ritual, transformation, and mystery. From experimental darkroom processes to conceptual and performative practices, photography has long operated between the visible and the invisible. Contemporary artists continue to test those boundaries with new technologies and critical perspectives and, in so doing, they reimagine enchantment, belief, and perception.
Magia opens a conversation about this restless, yet enduring relationship between photography and the realm of wonder. It asks how images still hold the power to surprise and transform the way we see.