Richard Learoyd’s unique and large-scale portrait and still-life photographs captivate viewers with their quiet power and mesmerising detail, which is achieved through an innovative process.
The images are made directly onto colour photographic paper in a room-sized camera obscura. The effect is almost hyper-real but is achieved entirely by non-digital and now obsolete chemical-based photography. Learoyd's sitters seem frozen in deep reflection, and are shown alongside dream-like still life arrangements and mysterious dark mirrors with no reflections. Through a combination of symbolic subjects and sheer visual impact, his elegant compositions question the nature of optics and test limits of photographic representation.
Photography, Room 38a, V&A
[text from V&A website]
This exhibition is not far from the MHG, why not visit two prestigious photographic institutions in one day!
