Basim Magdy

Basim Magdy came to photography through his interest in film. He
uses traditional analogue and Polaroid cameras which he likes to
reassemble and and experiment with, pushing their the apparatus
past what it was traditionally designed to do. Magdy creates
elusive images of empty landscapes, monuments that allude to the
human need to leave a mark on this earth and of people who seem
eerily out of place in their environment. In works like Someone
Tried to Lock up Time (2018) and Apology to a Love Story that
crashed into a Whale (2016) a series of images and poetic texts
make ambiguos references to the way in which history is being
written, and perhaps to the role that photography plays in the
construction of these perceived "truths" about the world. In
addition to an acclaimed international exhibition activity, Magdy
makes it a point to make many of his works, notably his films
available online. While digital modes of displaying art has gained
importance in recent times, he emphazises its potential for
democrazising access to art.