Richard Learoyd: Dark Mirror

Interesting exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum of photographs by Richard Learoyd taken with a room sized camera obscurer.

These are unique pictures where the life sized image is exposed directly onto photographic paper. This gives amazingly detailed intimate works. You feel like you are looking at real people in a slightly voyeuristic way. There was a stunning picture of a horse’s head in wonderful detail but it was just the horses head! After last week’s stuffed horse in an exhibition horse don’t seem to be doing too well in art at the moment!

I was fascinated by the pictures of mirrors done with this technique. They showed every scratch and speck of dust and gave the illusion of looking in a real mirror except that you weren’t reflected back.

Closes 14 February 2016.

 

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