The experience of looking at Richard Learoyd’s photographs can be “elemental, ritualistic even, like the drawing of blood,” writes Sandra Phillips in this catalog for an exhibition at Fundación MAPFRE in Spain, co-published in English by Fraenkel Gallery. Bringing together more than 70 photographs from the past ten years, the book includes portraits of clothed or nude models made with the massive camera obscura Learoyd built in his studio, which produces grainless, one of a kind color photographs. Also featured are landscapes made in California, England and Spain, as well as still lifes of animals and flowers. Presenting the highlights of Learoyd’s career, these images are rooted in the history of art, but were made with the clear intention of challenging the authority of painting.
