Edinburgh’s art restaurant, Le Roi Fou, announces latest exhibition

The exhibition includes portraits of prominent Scottish men and draws on themes of identity and community.

Le Roi Fou will host the exhibition

Edinburgh’s art restaurant, Le Roi Fou, has announced the latest exhibition in its series of art shows.

Opening on 11 February, ‘Homme Libre’ (free man) presents striking and intimate male portraits by Paris-born photographer Carla Borel.

It will be her first exhibition to be shown in Scotland.

Creative Director for Le Roi Fou, Isolde Nash said: “This is a beautiful, sensitive and sometimes romantic show about male identity to start our spring season in Edinburgh.

"There’s also a continuity in that Carla was John Claridge’s assistant, and our very first show here was of Claridge’s portraits of jazz musicians.”

The exhibition includes portraits of prominent Scottish men and draws on themes of identity and community, centring around the idea of masculinity seen from a female perspective.

Carla Borel said: “Each of the men is a close friend or acquaintance of mine. Straight, gay, trans, from various professions and backgrounds, each has an edge of some sort that made them very interesting to photograph, be it in stance and attitude, an air of mystery and romance, strength and vulnerability.”

Edinburgh’s Christopher Breward, Director of Collection & Research at the National Galleries of Scotland, novelist and theatre director Neil Bartlett, and festival regular, The Times dance critic Donald Hutera, are among the men included.

The men are unified by the same white t-shirt bearing an illustration of a sailor and Baudelaire quote: Homme libre, toujours tu chériras la mer! - translating to 'Free man, always you will cherish the sea!'

One roll of 24-exposure film was used for each sitter, shot entirely outside Borel’s studio in Bethnal Green, East London.

Borel’s work focuses on portraiture with a love of analogue processes. Her work addresses themes of transience, identity, community, isolation and loneliness.

She’s known for her ‘Stillsoho’ project, a series of black and white portraits of friends and lovers set in the landscape of a disappearing London.

For Homme Libre, Borel aims to examine her relationships with the opposite sex, how she communicates and connects on platonic and romantic levels, and how this translates in her portraits.

Le Roi Fou is located at 1 Forth Street in Edinburgh, EH1 3JX.