Agnes, Julio 2013 (3)

Technique

Gelatine plate on photographic paper (contact print)

Dimensions

Dimensions of printed area: 157,5 × 121,6 cm (62 × 47 7/8 in.)

Inventory

FM002412

Subject / Document

1/3 edition of 3 + 1 artist proof

Material / Format

Framed

Description

Richard Learoyd’s work has its roots in the past, in the very oigins of photography, as he obtains his images through a camera obscura that he himself built. The process of taking these images results in something similar to photography but whose true origin lies in the optical experiments and its development as an auxiliary instrument to drawing in past centuries. 

Learoyd’s portraits, done using this process, result in a life-size photograph. This imposes the direct presence of the subject and allows us to face him with an unusual familiarity. When taken in this way, the resulting photograph lacks film grain and deviates from standard photographic images. A long exposure is required and results in that surprising sense of balance, serenity and beauty which usually emanate from all his photographs, and these two portraits of Agnes, one of his preferred models, with much more intensity. 

The camera obscura is a constructed room which doubles as a photographic camera. This room has a pinhole in which a lens is placed to achieve greater definition; the inverted exterior image passes through this and is projected on the interior wall of the room, where Learoyd has placed a sheet of Ilfachrome paper. The result is obtained by the successive firing of strobes, such as flashes, which fix the image on the paper. 

There is no step that is not essential to obtain a photograph, but neither is there a possibility of tricks: Learoyd cannot edit that image, neither crop, nor enlarge, nor retouch…His images are unique thanks to this process, which has to do with physics and optics but which would be nothing without the creativity and sensitivity of the artist, who is the one who achieves images which can fascinate us, can create a sensation of wonder and strange realism, images capable of defining the photographic illusion in a new way. 

The two portraits of Agnes make us look at these photographs again and again for the sheer pleasure that comes from a work of art. They are balanced, simple but eloquent, and convey the magnetic beauty that emanates from the subject, but which reflects the subtle intelligence of the artist who achieves, with the help of the model, that atmosphere full of memory, of sensations, of poetry which invites us to meditation and silence.