Richard Estes (born Kewanee in 1932) is an artist working in the style of photorealism.

The photorealism movement (or rather its name and principles) was invented in 1968 by Louis Meisel
the definition he formulated sounded like this:

• A photorealist uses a camera and a photograph to collect information
• Photorealist uses mechanical and electromechanical means to transfer information to the canvas
• A photorealist must have the technical ability to make the final result look photographic
• An artist must have exhibited work as a photorealist since 1972 in order to be considered a significant photorealist
• An artist must devote at least five years to creating and exhibiting works in the style of photorealism”

Estes fits this strict definition perfectly since 1967 Estes has been making works by transferring images obtained with a camera to canvas or cardboard. For this, he uses a format camera. For each painting, Estes requires many color prints, which he makes himself.
But Richard can hardly be called a pure photorealist; the artist often shows signs of abstract painting. As the artist himself puts it, “Reality is changed to suit one’s taste.” Since the goal of his art is not a simple realistic repetition of the visible, but a certain “ideal reality” that displays perfect, rationally organized structures and objects that have much more in common with our reality than what we see around us.

The artist also developed his own special method of images, when, as a result of combining many photographs, a general panorama is obtained that is not always correct from the point of view of artistic perspective, but is quite spectacular.
As a result, a certain surreal “Superreality” arises, which distinguishes R. Estes’s paintings from the abstractions of his colleagues.