Fundación MAPFRE presents in Barcelona, the Richard Learoyd exhibition which showcases this British artist’s work at the height of his career, through a selection of 51 large format, color, and black and white photographs encompassing his best work over the span of a decade.
Richard Learoyd (Nelson, United Kingdom, 1966) is well-known for his unique photographic work which he has been carrying out for over a decade and which consists mainly of portraits of clothed and nude models in his studio, but it also covers other topics such as animal, landscape and dark mirror photography.
Learoyd’s work makes multiple references to the history of painting, both in terms of his themes and the technique he employs. His color and black and white photographs are the result of an artisanal process using a camera obscura based on antiquarian optical principals that he built himself.
This homemade device enables him to take large format color portraits, thereby producing pictures which do not look like photographs at all. Both his way of taking photographs and how he observes the image requires a more attentive and thoughtful gaze. It calls for a more contemplative attitude than the immediacy with which we normally see and photograph the world.
Richard Learoyd
until 8 September
Fundación MAPFRE
Casa Garriga Nogués Exhibition Hall
Diputació, 250. 08007 Barcelona
