Will Pryce, The Library
Velorose, 15 September 2017 – 27 October 2017

Libraries are the most enigmatic of public spaces. Tranquil, ordered and seemingly static, they are typically assumed to be innocuous, even soporific. But libraries are containers of books which in turn contain ideas, be they conservative, progressive, transgressive or even heretical. Each photograph in this collection reveals something of the character of intellectual life in the period in which the library was built. For instance, the Malatestiana Library captured in ‘Biblioteca Malatestiana, 1452, Cesena, Italy’ (2011), the world’s oldest surviving public library with its hand-illustrated volumes chained to the lecterns, reveals the then-precious rarity of the written word. El Escorial Library remains a statement of Spanish imperial might, and of the over-confidence of Renaissance monarchs; Admont Abbey Library embodies the compartmentalisation of subjects subjugated to the doctrine of the Counter-Reformation. Every Library captures a moment in time and reveals our ever-changing relationship with what we think of as knowledge

All works are for sale; contact gallery@velorose.com for details

Will Pryce, George Peabody Library, 1878, Baltimore, MD, United States, C-type print on Kodak Professional Endura Premier Metallic Paper, reverse acrylic mounted, 802mm x 802mm, framed with ash, 2012

Will Pryce, Biblioteca Marciana, 1564, Venice, Italy, C-type print on Kodak Professional Endura Premier Metallic Paper, reverse acrylic mounted, 600mm x 815mm, framed with ash, 2011

Will Pryce, Utrecht University Library, 2004, Utrecht, Netherlands, C-type print on Kodak Professional Endura Premier Metallic Paper, reverse acrylic mounted, 802mm x 600mm, framed with ash, 2011

Will Pryce, Biblioteca Malatestiana, 1452, Cesena, Italy, C-type print on Kodak Professional Endura Premier Metallic Paper, reverse acrylic mounted, 600mm x 785mm, framed with ash, 2011

Will Pryce, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, 1850, Paris, France, C-type print on Kodak Professional Endura Premier Metallic Paper, reverse acrylic mounted, 600mm x 795mm, framed with ash, 2010

Will Pryce, Admont Abbey Library, 1776, Admont, Austria, C-type print on Kodak Professional Endura Premier Metallic Paper, reverse acrylic mounted, 600mm x 800mm, framed with ash, 2011

Will Pryce, El Escorial Library, 1585, San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain, C-type print on Kodak Professional Endura Premier Metallic Paper, reverse acrylic mounted, 600mm x 815mm, framed with ash, 2013

Will Pryce, Mafra Palace Library, 1771, Mafra, Portugal, C-type print on Kodak Professional Endura Premier Metallic Paper, reverse acrylic mounted, 600mm x 805mm, framed with ash, 2012

All Images from the Library were photographed on an Arca-Swiss F-Line camera using lenses by Schneider and Rodenstock

Will studied architecture at Cambridge University and The Royal College of Art, and Photojournalism at the LCP (now LCC), and later worked at Foster + Partners and the Richard Rogers Partnership

He is based in London but photographs hotels and resorts, interiors and architecture all over the world for editorial, corporate, and advertising clients

Six books of his photography have been published internationally by Thames and Hudson amongst others in fifteen languages including ‘Brick, a World History’, and ‘World Architecture, The Masterworks’

Will Pryce, Glass House, New Canaan, Connecticut, United States, Digital Image, 2008

Will Pryce, The Golden Temple, Amritsar India, from ‘World Architecture: The Masterworks’, E-6 Transparency, 2003

Will Pryce, Abbey of St Gall Library, St Gallen, Switzerland, from the Series ‘The Library’, Digital Image, 2011

Will Pryce, The Golden Temple, Amritsar, India, from ‘World Architecture: The Masterworks’, E-6 Transparency, 2003

Will Pryce, St. Foy Abbey, Conque, France, from ‘World Architecture: The Masterworks’, E-6 Transparency, 2005

Will Pryce, Friday Mosque, Isfahan, Iran, from ‘World Architecture: The Masterworks’, E-6 Transparency, 2005

Will Pryce, National Library of China, 2008, Beijing, from the series ’The Library’, digital image, 2011