Henry Roy – Impossible Island

Henry Roy – Impossible Island draws on 40-years of recollections and observations as it brings together 113 photos taken from 1983 to 2023.

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.

Photo Book 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 Henry Roy and an essay by AGWA Curator Robert Cook.