Richard Learoyd

Pace Gallery presents an exhibition of recent work by photographer Richard Learoyd in New York. The exhibition features a selection of photographs Learoyd produced with his custom-built camera obscura between 2018 and 2025. Deeply inspired by Dutch Golden Age painting, Learoyd's latest works take viewers on a journey through intimate moments and intricate details, examining the relationship between subject, light, and space. The photographs on display explore a range of subjects, from hauntingly evocative portraits to still-life compositions that breathe life into the simplest of objects.

Learoyd's unique photographic processes require an immense degree of technical precision, resulting in incredibly detailed, luminous prints with a tactile richness rarely seen in contemporary photography. Reflecting on the delicate interplay between light, shadow, and form, Learoyd's work is imbued with a surreal, auratic presence that speaks to his enduring interest in the notion of collective photographic memory—the idea that a picture can be felt and understood on a subconscious level. The artist is renowned for his masterful use of light and his ability to capture the profound depth and stillness of the human experience.

"Light and space have always been central to my work," Learoyd explains. "I want to capture more than just an image; I want to convey a sense of time, intimacy, and presence—things that transcend the immediate and evoke a more timeless feeling."

Highlights in the exhibition, carefully curated by Learoyd, include a photograph of clasped hands, an ode to Alfred Stieglitz's images of Georgia O'Keeffe's hands from the first half of the 20th century. Also on view are the artist's most recent body of work, a series of photographs created using a new and transformative process of multiple impression printing layered with hand-coated gesso on canvas. These multi-dimensional works showcase the artist's exploration of depth, texture, time, and the relationship between photography and materiality.

Richard Learoyd's large-scale color and black-and-white portrait, landscape, and still-life photographs are celebrated for their balance of hyper-real and expressive qualities. His in-studio custom-built camera obscura contains two room-like chambers connected by a bellows with an inset lens. Working with Ilfochrome color-reversal paper, Learoyd uses the camera obscura to render a single positive, unique image with minute detail without film negatives or digital technology.