Beauty is a mystery.

In her « La Plage Blanche » series, Carine Magescas lifts the veil for us. It actually is a long journey, that we can only touch on here, to achieve this pleasure for the eye, this evidence.

From her Basque father, Carine Magescas drew on the vibrant immensity of coastal landscapes and the ardent curiosity of explorers. Since Magescas arrived in  America  in 1998, and with a fresh outlook,  she daily captures the plastic quality of Californian landscapes and American lifestyle. It’s a first step. It is then time to sift through, like a gold rush pioneer sorting through sand. Gradually, little gems appear. 

Luckily, Magescas inherently posses precious skills for anyone venturing in an artistic endeavor: A great sense of austere sophistication and a relentless need for stark truth. This wise exigency leads to a quest for authentic views, frames and hues. Magescas proceeds with a sophisticated minimalism and an intuitive rejection of pathos, eventually stripping images down to their essence.

Thus, the progression shown in Carine Magescas ‘La Plage Blanche’ is emblematic of her spiritual process, increasingly leaning towards less rather than more. Slowly, the realism in the photographs leaves place to a pure artistic project. Beyond the anecdote, the beach, the surfboards, the familiar coastal decorum dissolves from the loud agitation of the civilized world to become luminous havens of peace and serenity.  This small wonder lies in that all the elements – the complementarity of tints and hues, the blues entirely devoid of affectation, the rhythm in the composition, the verticality of the emerging silhouettes –  are all true; tend to the universal. They meet an inner need. And that inner need for Magescas is the vibration of light. Carine Magescas is a magician of light who magnificently plays with its shimmery effects on spaces.

To what do we distinguish a major photograph, one that will last?  When each element of the composition, each tree, cloud, shadow, seems to have naturally positioned itself in the right place. Like a living material. 

Through great exigency in her work, where every detail contributes to achieve a perfect realization of her intention, Magescas succeeds in creating an original vibrant material. Her photographs give us joy. They lead to contemplation. One thinks of the late abstract landscapes of the wonderful Nicolas de Staël and Thoreau’s quote ‘Some piece of mica, as it were, in the face or eyes of one,… , slanted at the right angle, reflects the heavens to us.’ 

Carine Magescas found her own signature style, an accomplishment in the crowded world of Contemporary Photography. 

Catherine de la Clergerie, Author and Curator. Paris, 2015.