Bubi Canal’s photographs are like candy-colored portals into a world where anything can happen — and probably will, if you dare to believe. Born in Santander, Spain, and now working between there and New York, Canal moves freely across photography, video, and sculpture, but at the heart of it all is his singular talent for turning everyday moments into bursts of surreal joy.

To step into Canal’s universe is to see the world through a child’s eyes — but not naively so. He builds his images from simple props, homemade costumes, and found objects, combining them with strikingly composed backdrops and bright, saturated colors. The results are portraits and staged scenes that feel like tiny myths — playful, symbolic, and just a little mischievous.

His series Magic Garden is a perfect example of how he works: soft and psychedelic at once, it transforms ordinary green spaces into portals for make-believe creatures and masked beings. Characters in neon wigs, metallic masks, or painted faces appear amid plants and pathways like living spirits of forgotten fairy tales. There’s a clear line between Canal’s images and the childhood memory of playing dress-up in the backyard, where a bedsheet becomes a cape and every flower might hide a secret.

Yet there’s more than whimsy here. Canal’s practice is rooted in ritual and instinct, where the act of making an image is as important as the result. He often talks about improvisation — how the right prop or gesture appears unexpectedly, shaping the work on the fly. The figures he photographs are collaborators as much as subjects. Together, they slip into new skins, embodying something otherworldly yet deeply familiar.

Look closer, and you’ll see how these candy-colored compositions carry a quiet depth. Canal’s art is deeply personal — a conversation between his dreams, his pop culture fascinations, and the stories he still carries from childhood. There’s an undercurrent of nostalgia, but it’s not melancholic; rather, it’s celebratory, an affirmation that growing up doesn’t mean giving up wonder.

In interviews, Canal often mentions the influence of TV cartoons, sci-fi, and video games — visual languages that shaped his playful approach to color and symbolism. His images channel that DIY spirit too: they feel handcrafted, raw around the edges, stubbornly human despite their dreamlike subjects.

And then there’s the optimism. In a time when surrealism can lean dark or dystopian, Canal’s work remains defiantly bright. Faces stare out from behind handmade masks, and their eyes say: play is serious business. A toy ray gun, a sequined mask, a glittering paper crown — they’re tools for transformation, for stepping outside the everyday and into something larger, stranger, freer.

Over the years, Canal’s work has appeared everywhere from Madrid to New York, with gallery shows, magazine spreads, and artist residencies fueling his ever-growing archive of uncanny, joyful images. His creative process stays refreshingly fluid — each shoot a chance to build new rituals, new myths. The performances he orchestrates in front of the lens are equal parts child’s play and pop-art theatre, held together by an instinctive trust in color, composition, and emotion.

Above all, Bubi Canal’s photographs remind us that the surreal doesn’t have to be alienating — sometimes, it’s simply an invitation to reconnect with the part of us that still believes in magic gardens and imaginary friends. His portraits don’t ask to be explained. They ask to be felt.

In his universe, the fantastical is always just one bright wig or painted mask away. Step through — the door is wide open. Find more of his dreamlike work at bubicanal.com.