26/11/2007
Richard Learoyd
Union, London
The works exhibited are rich in colour and detail, a product of a specific process whereby the photographs are made as singular objects. Learoyd utilises a unique photographic method to create large-scale life sized images with a specifically built camera.
The works exhibited are rich in colour and detail, a product of a specific process whereby the photographs are made as singular objects. Learoyd utilises a unique photographic method to create large-scale life sized images with a specifically built camera. The camera captures the image without any interposing negative, transparency or intermediate material; rather light is directly focussed by the camera onto a positive photographic paper. The images are therefore unique. The photographs are made and conceived as a whole, not as fragments or miniaturisations of objects and people.
Whilst being made, the image is viewed by standing in the camera, uncorrected upside down and left to right, transient and realistic images of people on a white board on a black wall, the ultimate personal cinema, or mechanised camera obscura. The work shown is produced in a single room. Objects and people are brought to the camera and placed and arranged in front of the camera. Artless compositions and simple constructions belie complex compositional problems and hopelessly restrictive rules dictated by the physics of optics and light. Portraits, nudes and objects all share the same realistic treatment. Learoyd rejects the idea that his method is simplistic or shares a relationship with pinhole photography.
Instead he considers the method he uses to be a natural step in search of the ultimate image, not only in its ability to create likeness, but in the object's ability to translate the intention of the maker. Sometimes technology, even in a technical medium is not the best solution. The subject matter chosen is not trying to fulfil an externalised cultural brief, but obviously holds resonance for the artist. Learoyd works outside the convention of a photographic sequence or series, but in a cohesive grouping of singular images. He has created a process that cuts like scan through anything or anyone placed before his camera.
Union
57 Ewer Street - London
Free admission