Carine Magescas’ photographs minimal seascapes with a timeless and placeless quality. Peaceful, serene and sophisticated, these familiar beach scenes speak universally as their beauty evokes a sense of calm and purity.
When she first moved to the US from her native France in the late 1990s, Magescas was overwhelmed by the incredible sense of freedom she got from the sight of the over-scaled landscapes she had rarely seen in Europe, and this sense of immensity stayed with her.
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During her 15 years living in California, Magescas had access to some of the most iconic beaches in America, notably on the northern coast of the state and in Montauk, the far east of the Hamptons known as “The End”. It was here that she photographed her entire Surfer series off-season.
The vast expanses of the beaches in Magescas’ images, rid of all seasonal furor, paired with her ability to strip the images down to just the perfect level to create her vision, brings a spontaneous sense of serenity. She has always had a fondness for deserted beaches, once the crowds have left; for her they bring back memories of the beaches in South West France and Brittany, and the slight melancholy of the last days of summer.
Magescas sees beauty in the ordinary and is drawn to compositions that capture a sense of abstraction with multiple layers. With these scenes of white and muted hues of the ocean, Magescas encourages us to ponder, and take a moment to contemplate life, much perhaps like her subjects while they’re floating in the water waiting for the next wave.
Describing the works in a physical sense, Magescas says: “The surfers are slivers of elegant darkness, dissolving in the sleekness of the water. Their vertical black silhouettes emerging tend towards the universal. Off-season means quiet, but by no means static”.
Carine Magescas is a French photographer living and working in New York City.
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