About
David Szymanski is an artist and photographer whose work explores the intersections of perception, secrecy, and transformation. Grounded in a sustained inquiry into how knowledge and belief shape the ways we see, his practice spans documentary and constructed imagery, investigating what images reveal—and what they deliberately or necessarily withhold. Szymanski’s work often engages immersive research, close observation, and subjects that resist easy categorization.

The Magicians Project (2012–present) embodies this ethos, exploring the culture and craft of stage magic and magicians, and how secrecy, performance, and tradition intersect. Through this work, he has become attuned to the rituals, gestures, and inherited forms that transmit knowledge across time—often invisibly and nonlinearly. These investigations continue to inform new photographic, sculptural, and performative work, extending the principles of illusion and observation into spaces, objects, and experiences that engage perception beyond the frame.

His work has been published in The Wall Street Journal, VICE, Variety, The New Yorker, Genii, Pitchfork, and other international publications. He is based in Madison, Wisconsin, where he lives with his wife and children.