Photographer Oliver Richon creates allegorical depictions of animals using the conventions of portraiture, chiaroscuro lighting, and an understanding of perspective that rivals master still life painters such as Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin. Steeped in consciousness of art history, his work reveals the layers, subtleties, and hidden meanings that lurk underneath the so-called factual medium of photography. “Richon plays with our allegorical expectations, equipping his images with artefacts that, at first, seem laden with art-historical symbolism, but simultaneously confuse conventional readings,” wrote critic Sarah James in Frieze. For instance, in Monkey with Fruit (2008), a pensive monkey examines fruit against the austere background of the photographer’s studio. Noting the cheeky and surrealistic qualities in Richon’s otherwise highly conceptual photography, James declared it “like …