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A magic square is a grid of numbers where the sum of every row, column, and diagonal is the same. It is a mathematical puzzle that has fascinated people for centuries. The concept of magic squares dates back to ancient times, with the first known magic square discovered in China around 650 BC. Over the years, magic squares have been explored and studied by different cultures, including ancient Egyptians, Indians, Arabs, and Europeans. A magic square typically consists of consecutive numbers starting from 1 and going up to n^2, where n represents the number of rows and columns in the square. For example, a 3x3 magic square would have the numbers 1 to 9.

For example, a 3x3 magic square would have the numbers 1 to 9. The arrangement of these numbers in the square must be done in such a way that the sum of each row, column, and diagonal is the same. This sum is known as the "magic constant.

'Every Black Person Deserves To See Themselves This Way'

Using fluorescent body paint and ultraviolet light, photographer Mikael Owunna's latest work aims to transform the black body into "the cosmos and eternal." The images evoke celestial beings, magical and otherworldly.

But the concept for the project, Infinite Essence, was sparked by frustration and exhaustion.

The 28-year-old Nigerian-Swedish photographer, who was born in Pittsburgh, Pa., and is based there now, says he grew weary of the barrage of violent, dehumanizing imagery of black people he saw in the media.

"Black people dead and dying. Being gunned down by police officers, drowning and washing up on the shores of the Mediterranean, starving and suffering in award-winning photography. The trope of the black body as a site of death is everywhere," he says in his artist statement.

DeShaun, 2017 Mikael Owunna hide caption

For Owunna, the final provocation came in 2014: seeing photos of Michael Brown's body lying in the street after he was killed by Darren Wilson, a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo. The image spread across the media, even appearing on the front page of The New York Times.

"If the majority of images that you see of yourself are negative," Owunna says, "if people who look like you are dead or dying or captured in a negative light, how do those images enter your body?"

Owunna wanted to counteract the pain of those photos, to create imagery that showed the black body not as a site of death but as a site of magic.

James, 2018 Mikael Owunna hide caption

The name of Owunna's project was inspired by Chinua Achebe's writing on traditional Igbo spirituality, its supreme deity, Chukwu, and the concept of chi, the spirit guide found in every person: "Is chi an infinitesimal manifestation of Chukwu's infinite essence given to each of us separately and uniquely, a single ray from the sun's boundless radiance?" Achebe writes in his essay, "Chi in Igbo Cosmology."

"Each of our spirits is just one ray of the infinite essence of the sun. And in my photography, [I'm] shooting that UV light, trying to capture that spiritual dimension that we're all on," he says. "How can I capture a piece or fragment or a shadow in that land of magic? That's what I'm grounding the project in and that's what I'm capturing, the spiritual guide for the individual models."

Sam, 2018 Mikael Owunna hide caption

For inspiration, Owunna looked back to a painful season from his past. As a teenager, he felt isolated and bullied for coming out as queer at the Ohio boarding school he attended. Fantasy helped him cope.

"I would catapult myself into these lands of magic that would be captured in Japanese anime or video games or fantasy novels," he says. "So magic, for me, was this world of escape."

Uche, 2019 Mikael Owunna hide caption

"I went back to the [anime] videos that had inspired me as a child, those videos of magic being formed, and those sparkles coming from the body," he says. His goal became finding a way to embody the eternal — represented by those sparkles — through photography.

He found the solution in fluorescent body paint, the kind people might use for a black light party. The paint is barely visible in normal light, so Owunna had to figure out how to make it show up in his photos.

Emem, 2018 Mikael Owunna hide caption

An engineering student in college, Owunna used that knowledge to augment a camera flash so that it would transmit only ultraviolet light frequencies. That way, when his subjects are covered with the paint and photographed in darkness, the fluorescent colors are illuminated and made visible by the UV light emitted from the flash.

The models look as if they're wrapped in stars.

Kinya, 2017 Mikael Owunna hide caption

That the UV light allows us to see these dazzling colors reflects larger themes in his work — as Owunna writes in his artist statement, that "regardless of our experiences of oppression on the physical plane, we are infinite. As infinite as the universe, and the stardust that forms every fiber of our beings."

"Within the visible spectrum we have racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia," Owunna explains. "But if I look in the UV spectrum, which is beyond the comprehension of the human eye, the black body is a site of magic."

Emem, 2018 Mikael Owunna hide caption

At first, Owunna's subjects were friends and family. Now, two years into the project, strangers often contact him, asking to be included.

The process is intimate and requires trust. Owunna lets people choose the colors that speak to them. Then he paints their bodies with the nearly invisible paint, which takes about an hour. In all, the sessions take about five hours.

"It takes so long they get used to being naked in front of me," he says. "It is intimate for sure."

Sam, 2018 Mikael Owunna hide caption

The poses are collaborative and a result of conversation between photographer and model, but Owunna does gravitate toward certain themes. For example with masculine people, he says, he wants to show tenderness, "because masculinity is never really equated with tenderness."

"That's good work for them to be doing emotionally, in terms of opening themselves up to that," he says.

The 28-year-old Nigerian-Swedish photographer, who was born in Pittsburgh, Pa., and is based there now, says he grew weary of the barrage of violent, dehumanizing imagery of black people he saw in the media.

" For a 3x3 square, the magic constant is 15, while for a 4x4 square, it is 34. To create a magic square, there are various methods and algorithms that can be used. One popular method is the Siamese method, which involves starting with the number 1 and placing it in the middle square of the top row. Then, each subsequent number is placed in the square diagonally up and to the right from the previous number. The process continues until all numbers are placed in the square, resulting in a magic square. However, not all magic squares can be constructed using this method, and more complex algorithms are required for larger squares. Magic squares have intrigued mathematicians due to their symmetrical and mathematical properties. They have been used in various fields, including recreational mathematics, puzzles, and even in ancient rituals and beliefs. In addition to the traditional magic squares, there are also different types and variations, such as panmagic squares (where all broken diagonals also have the same sum) and magic cubes (which extend the concept to three dimensions). Overall, magic squares are an interesting mathematical concept that continues to captivate and challenge researchers and enthusiasts alike. They combine the beauty of symmetry with the complexity of numbers, offering a glimpse into the fascinating world of mathematics..

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