Richard Learoyd’s sublime portraits, such as Agnes, 2014, are unique Ilfachrome prints created using a camera obscura. His London studio is comprised of two rooms, one where the subject sits, the other is a light-sealed room with an opening for a lens and a wall where the light-sensitive paper rests. Once the paper has been exposed, it immediately is developed in-house and let to dry. As Learoyd puts it, “I see my work more in the lineage of the French—referring to daguerreotypes: those non-reproducible photographic objects whose multi-planed surface and miraculous depth of field fascinate me. With my work I am interested in the moment when the image becomes dye and colour, when the illusion of it being a reflection or projection breaks down. I think you get that sense with daguerreotype images: you see the object before the illusion. With my pictures, the illusion is very strong and breaks suddenly, and often only momentarily, which is something I like.”