In the ancient Greek dramatic theater (and later on the Roman), to enhance the ‘terrible’ effect, a deity’s statue was lowered by means of a machinery – the Deus Ex Machina. Often, this was the turnaround point, when the divinity would bring the solution to a difficulty or to a probable dead end. Still, today’s people expect their god to bring them miracles as a reward of their faith. It is their despair that keeps the machina working.
Deus ex machina comes from Latin and is literally ‘god from a machine’. The camera, made from intricate mechanisms, mirrors and optical prisms, is a perfect alchemist tool were inorganic chemistry delivers the epistemological immortality imprisoned in the gelatinous emulsion. The camera as the machina.
Vigo (Spain), Nuno Vieira Matos, 2006 (gelatine silver print) – click to enlarge
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