Richard Learoyd

Photographer Richard Learoyd creates large-scale photographs in his studio and in the field using a custom-built camera obscura: essentially, a dark room or series of darkened chambers with a hole or lens on one side through which an image is directly projected onto the printing surface on the opposing wall. With this historical device, Learoyd captures carefully composed portrait sittings, landscapes, and still lifes with a palpable closeness. This immediacy translates to the printed image, which, absent an intermediary printing or enlargement process, lacks any graininess or pixelation. With light exposures that recall Dutch Golden Age painting, Learoyd’s images create resonances with historical works, building narratives that transverse space and time.