Richard Learoyd was born in the small mill town of Nelson, Lancashire, England in 1966. At the age of 15, his mother insisted he take a pinhole photography workshop, which he attributes as the start of his interest in photography. In 1990 he graduated from the Glasgow School of Art with a degree in Fine Art Photography. While there he studied with American photographer Thomas Joshua Cooper. In 1991 Learoyd was awarded an artist-in-residence at the Scottish Ballet. Learoyd taught photography at Bournemouth and Poole College from 1994 until 1999. In 2000, he moved to London where he worked as a commercial photographer.
Exhibitions
Solo
1992: Elevations, Stills Gallery, Scotland.
1993: Artificial Horizons, Street Level Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland.
2007: Richard Learoyd, Union Gallery, London.
2009: Unique Photographs, McKee Gallery, New York.
2012-2013: About Face, Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco, CA
2013: The Unphotographable, Fraenkel Gallery, CA.
2014 Negativeless, Michael Hoppen Gallery, London.
2016-2017: Collected, Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco, CA
Publications
Publications by Learoyd
Richard Learoyd Twenty-Two Photographs: 2005-07. London: Self-published, 2008. Essay by Martin Barnes and Chris Bucklow.
Richard Learoyd Unique Photograph: 2007-09. New York: McKee Gallery, 2009. Interview by Chris Bucklow.
Presences. San Francisco: Fraenkel Gallery, 2011. ASIN B0086RVF6C
Portraits and Figures. New York: McKee Gallery, 2011. Essay by Mark Alice Durant.
Richard Learoyd: Still/Life. New York: Mckee Gallery, 2013. ASIN B00I7UWV0M. Essay by Charles Moffet.
Day for Night. New York: Aperture; San Francisco, Pier 24 Photography, 2015.. Essays by Richard Learoyd, Martin Barnes and Nancy Gryspeerdt
Richard Learoyd: The Silence of the Camera Obscura. Madrid: Fundación MAPFRE, 2019. Essays by Phillip Gefter and Sandra Phillips.
Publications with contributions by Learoyd
Dress Codes: The Third ICP Triennial of Photography and Video. Göttingen: Steidl, 2010.
About Face. San Francisco: Pier 24 Photography, 2012.. Exhibition guide.
Seduced by Art: Photography Past and Present, London: National Gallery, 2012.
The Unphotographable. San Francisco: Fraenkel Gallery, 2013.
About Face. San Francisco: Pier 24 Photography, 2014.. Exhibition catalog. Edition of 1000 copies. With forewords by Christopher McCall, and Richard Avedon, an introduction by Philip Gefter, and texts by Sandra S. Phillips, and Ulrike Schneider.
Collections
Learoyd's work is held in the following public collections:
