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Agnes with Eyes Closed

Photograph
2007 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Richard Learoyd's photographs are unique images made with a specifically built camera. The camera is the size of a small room, in which the artists pins direct colour positive paper (known as dye destruction, Cibachrome or Ilfachrome) to the back wall and views the image, much as inside a camera obscura. An image cast by a lens fixed to the front wall is projected onto the paper and the resulting exposed sheet is fed directly into a print processing machine connected to the walk-in camera / dark room. The fact that this process is a direct positive on a large scale, with no print enlargement from a negative or transparency, results in an image of astounding clarity, detail and lack of film-grain. The effect is almost hyper real.

Unlike in most conventional photography, objects and people are brought to the immovable camera and placed and arranged in front. He also works outside the convention of a photographic sequence or series, but in a cohesive grouping of singular images. Learoyd's seemingly simple or restrained compositional arrangements belie complex conceptual and philosophical ideas, many of which question the nature of optics and the practice of photography itself. The chosen subject matter however does not overtly attempt to fulfil an externalised cultural or theoretical brief, but carries its message initially through sheer visual impact.

Object details

Category
Object type
TitleAgnes with Eyes Closed (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Dye destruction print
Brief description
Photograph by Richard Learoyd, 'Agnes with Eyes Closed', dye destruction print, 2007.
Physical description
Colour photograph of a seated young woman with her eyes closed.
Dimensions
  • Frame height: 192cm
  • Frame width: 161cm
Gallery label
(2016)
Agnes with Eyes Closed
2007

Agnes has remained one of Learoyd’s most constant
sitters for the ten years that he has been making camera
obscura photographs in his studio. In this image, attention
is drawn to the check pattern of her dress rippling in and out
of focus. Her closed eyes suggest a dream state and create
an atmosphere of reverie.

Dye destruction print
Given by Richard Learoyd
Museum no. E.421-2008
(2008-2009)
The astonishing image quality of Learoyd's unique photographs is achieved with painstaking methods akin to early processes of photography. As a result, his modern images carry visual echoes of the past. They are made directly onto colour positive paper inside a walk-in camera. Both the technique and Learoyd's style creates a sense of reverie: a lingering and intensified look suggesting a world of stillness and silence.
Credit line
Given by Richard Learoyd
Object history
Richard Learoyd (born 1966) makes photographs inside a room-sized camera obscura. Over the last ten years, he has perfected this unconventional process in which an image is exposed directly onto photographic paper inside the room. The results are one-off prints with astonishing detail and an impressive physical presence.
Subject depicted
Summary
Richard Learoyd's photographs are unique images made with a specifically built camera. The camera is the size of a small room, in which the artists pins direct colour positive paper (known as dye destruction, Cibachrome or Ilfachrome) to the back wall and views the image, much as inside a camera obscura. An image cast by a lens fixed to the front wall is projected onto the paper and the resulting exposed sheet is fed directly into a print processing machine connected to the walk-in camera / dark room. The fact that this process is a direct positive on a large scale, with no print enlargement from a negative or transparency, results in an image of astounding clarity, detail and lack of film-grain. The effect is almost hyper real.

Unlike in most conventional photography, objects and people are brought to the immovable camera and placed and arranged in front. He also works outside the convention of a photographic sequence or series, but in a cohesive grouping of singular images. Learoyd's seemingly simple or restrained compositional arrangements belie complex conceptual and philosophical ideas, many of which question the nature of optics and the practice of photography itself. The chosen subject matter however does not overtly attempt to fulfil an externalised cultural or theoretical brief, but carries its message initially through sheer visual impact.
Collection
Accession number
E.421-2008

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Record createdJune 8, 2009
Record URL
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