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Henry Roy – Impossible Island
Henry Roy Flowers and beach, Ibiza, Spain 2004. Inkjet print on Baryta paper, 113 x 164 cm. With kind permission of the artist. © Henry Roy.
Henry Roy – Impossible Island
In a world-first, legendary photographer Henry Roy holds his first survey at The Art Gallery of Western Australia.
Henry Roy – Impossible Island draws on 40-years of recollections and observations as it brings together 113 photos taken from 1983 to 2023. The images were shot in places such as his native Haiti, Ibiza, Paris, Dakar, Cameroon, Normandy, Marrakesh, Thailand, and the Ivory Coast.
Impossible Island channels the many influences that have shaped Roy’s artistic journey including his exile from his homeland of Haiti to his love of literature and passion for New Wave French cinema.
Henry Roy’s work has been of international interest since the 1990s because of the incredible beauty and richness of his imagery, qualities that have made him a sought-after photographer in magazine editorial and exhibition contexts.
His photographic vision was a key component of the new publishing trends in the late 1990s, specifically as a contributor to Purple, and later in the 2000s Hobo magazine.
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Photo Book
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The exhibition is accompanied by a new publication published by AGWA in collaboration with Loose Joints Publishing. The 160-page hardcover publication features full-colour plate atmospheric imagery from the exhibition, poetic texts by artist Henry Roy and an essay by AGWA Curator Robert Cook.
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Henry Roy Wrestlers, Dakar, Senegal 2016. Inkjet print on Baryta paper, 113 x 164 cm. With kind permission of the artist. © Henry Roy.
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Henry Roy Man sleeping, Yaounde, Cameroon2002. Inkjet print on Baryta paper, 117 x 81 cm. With kind permission of the artist. © Henry Roy.
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Henry Roy Swimming pool, Jacmel, Haiti 2011. Inkjet print on Baryta paper, 113 x 164 cm. With kind permission of the artist. © Henry Roy.
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Henry Roy Charlotte Rampling, Paris, France 2004. Inkjet print on Baryta paper, 81 x 117 cm. With kind permission of the artist. © Henry Roy.
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Henry Roy Girl sleeping, Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of the Congo 2002. Inkjet print on Baryta paper, 70 x 100 cm. With kind permission of the artist. © Henry Roy.
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Henry Roy Es Vedrà - orange, Ibiza, Spain 2004. Inkjet print on Baryta paper, 160 x 243 cm. With kind permission of the artist. © Henry Roy.
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Henry Roy Dog on a camino, Ibiza, Spain 2004. Inkjet print on Baryta paper, 50 x 70 cm. With kind permission of the artist. © Henry Roy.
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Henry Roy Children's games, Ibiza, Spain 2009. Inkjet print on Baryta paper, 164 x 113 cm. With kind permission of the artist. © Henry Roy.
Impossible Island evokes my exile from Haiti, and the quest for a metaphorical island, an imaginary refuge where one can escape the brutality of the world. It presents a bittersweet universe where water and sunlight dominate, symbols of both life and death.
Art photographer and writer
inkjet print on Baryta paper, 40 x 60 cm
with kind permission of the artist
© Henry Roy
About Henry Roy
Art photographer and writer
Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1963, Henry Roy is a photographer and writer. He emigrated to France with his family when he was three years old for political reasons. He studied photography in Paris, after which he worked as a photojournalist and published, in 1996, a book of black-and-white studio portraits of Black personalities from different backgrounds, titled Regards Noirs (Dagorno & L'Harmattan).
Henry Roy uses intuition to trace his quest for identity in our world. His vision is the result of a blend of reminiscence, fantasy, and sensations captured throughout his daily life, in an animistic relationship with his environment. Henry Roy has continued this dreamy poetic journal for several decades as a sensorial and mental biography.
His work has been displayed in exhibitions in Paris, London, New-York, Maastricht, Arnhem, Tokyo, Taipei, Hong Kong, Zürich, and he has published numerous portraits, lifestyle series, and personal texts in international magazines such as Vogue Paris, Purple Journal, Purple Fashion, Air France Magazine, AD, W Magazine, Harper's Bazaar UK, Artreview, M Le Monde, L'Officiel Voyage, Apartamento, Hobo, and IntranQu'îllités, to name a few.
He has published six individual photography books, edited many other publications, and curated art events and exhibitions. He has also taught photography in Paris and Haiti. He lives and works mostly in Paris.
Exhibition Labels
Download the Henry Roy - Impossible Island Artwork Labels
Sensory Map
Download the Henry Roy - Impossible Island Sensory and Access Map
