Inspiration: review of "Roll" by Théo Gosselin
Background. I stumbled across Théo’s work quite some time ago and while I’ve always liked his Instagram account, I learned to appreciate his work on Flickr early on (although he’s not updating it anymore) cause the images were looking amazing on a big screen! In April this year (2021) I learned that together with Fisheye Magazine he was releasing a new book and luckily I was quick enough to get my hands on a pre-order. The book arrived a few days ago and I have to tell you: it is one of the best books I have ever seen. Maybe the best? Let me explain.
Foreword. I’ve been a book worm since high school and I’ve learned that there are many different aspects to different books, aspects that make a book good, great or just ruin it completely. Some books might have an incredible story, but the foreword from the author might put you off. Some books might feel like a high quality item in your hand, but the mediocre content won’t be matching that quality. Recently I bought a photography book from a very well known photographer (name of which I’ll keep to myself), whose work is absolutely stunning and the images in it should inspire me to pick it up on a daily basis, but because of the paper it was printed on I’ve noticed that I’m not reaching for it as often as I thought I would.
Design. That is not the case with “Roll”. As soon as I got it out of the package it felt amazing in the hand. The cover feels almost like leather and there is a pleasing weight to it. It’s also thick. I was expecting something smaller, maybe 50-70 pages, but I think it has somewhere around 200 pages. The paper that the images are printed on feels really good to the touch and it really makes all the photographs pop. I’m in love with the clean design as well. No more than one image per page, the foreword and afterword are clean, written in a big simple font and they’re a pleasure to read as well! Theo’s introduction is short and sweet while Benoit Baume’s description of Théo really makes you connect with the artist. It’s perfect!
Content. When it comes to the content of the book… looking through Théo’s images gave me a completely different feeling than any other book I’ve ever seen! The images made me feel nostalgic, made me miss my people, made me want to hit the road again. There is one photo in this book, a group of people sitting around a car, and it somehow made me feel like I’m between friends, made me miss my own friends.
From “Roll” by Theo Gosselin
There’s a story, a theme to the whole book and it creates some incredible feelings. The images feel like they could’ve been taken over the course of many years, but might as well have been captured during last week’s road trip.
Summary. If you’ll get a chance to buy this book, do it, it’s really that good. It is the best book I’ve seen so far. It’ll inspire you to do things and isn’t that what books should be all about?
With love
Simon