Magic!

Maggie Taylor

“Maggie Taylor sits squarely in the grand tradition of altered photography, a practice that goes back to the late Nineteenth Century. It was famously explored by surrealist photographers such as Man Ray, Raoul Ubac, Hans Bellmer, George Hugnet, and Maurice Tabard who use distortion, montage, solarization and other darkroom techniques in the 1930s….

Taylor’s medium is Adobe Photoshop ®; her main hardware tool apart from the computer, is the scanner, although she does supplement her imagery with standard photographs she takes. Her style is unmistakable – as alluring as it is puzzling – capturing a nostalgic atmosphere of Victorian twilight, each image presenting a bizarre twist. Her subjects are long gone people who had their portraits taken by equally long departed pre-modern photographers. She scans these portraits, then adds color, atmosphere, background, and incongruous elements, such as insects, birds, and fish, which catapult them into a dream world….The Style borders on that of children’s book illustration; the visual language is sentimental, whence their charm. The juxtapositions are incongruous and the meanings enigmatic, hence their fascination….”

Excerpt by Joel Simpson

Printed in “The New York Art World” - October, 2005