Nancy Recovered

The vivid clarity of this image can be attributed to Richard Learoyd's use of a camera obscura, a room-sized apparatus in which a scene from outside is projected on one wall through a lens mounted on an adjacent wall. To create his prints, Learoyd positions a large sheet of photographic paper on the wall opposite the lens and on it captures his subjects posed in an adjoining studio. Without the intermediary of film, his images are startlingly lifelike. Every pore, hair, and mole seems to vault from the print’s surface. And without a film negative, his photographs are one-of-a-kind—as unique as a drawing or painting. (Jan. 2017)