Through the Looking Glass and Other Stories

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1961, Taylor spent countless hours as a child in the company of books, Barbies, and television sitcoms. After receiving a degree in Philosophy from Yale and a Master’s degree in Photography at the University of Florida, Taylor worked for over ten years as an exhibiting fine art still-life photographer.  An early adapter of digital technology, Taylor has created exquisitely-crafted inkjet prints of her work since the late 1990s.  With the use of a flatbed scanner and a variety of small cameras, she conjures up a stage-like world of unsettled magic, piling mysterious layer upon layer. At times images are comprised of several hundred layers.  The final result is a visually coherent, painterly image that allows the anonymous antique photographs to tell a new story.  In this recycled world of unsettling juxtapositions there are no neat conclusions or resolutions: each image opens a new set of questions and possibilities.

“Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Maggie Taylor’s digital composites have been widely exhibited and have been collected by many museums including the following: The Center for Creative Photography, Tucson; The George Eastman House, Rochester; Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville; Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas; The High Museum, Atlanta; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans; The Art Museum, Princeton University; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland; The Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; and The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara.