Image: Tate Modern, London
'Light and Magic' runs from 14 October 2026 to 21 February 2027. Artist and darkroom advocate Dr Ajamu X has selected vintage prints from 'Light and Magic', focusing on the physicality of photographic surfaces and the material processes of the darkroom. Dr Ajamu X is a darkroom and fine-art photographic artist based in London.
Vision is not the only sense used with photography: touch and smell are important too; many photographs by pictorialist photographers were developed and printed in makeshift darkrooms, including kitchens, cellars and other improvised spaces, and the processes of bleaching, scratching, coating and printing can be imagined.
Edward J. Steichen’s 'Moonlight: The Pond' is a 1906 photogravure print on paper.
'Light and Magic' brings together over 200 rare prints by over 80 artists from Seoul to Sydney, New York to Cape Town and Brazil to Singapore, presenting an international look at the history of photography. The exhibition is presented in the Eyal Ofer Galleries.
