Photography books have a remarkable way of speaking without ever uttering a word, of bringing back to our earliest days, looking at picture books. The immediacy of the image captures our attention like nothing else, and we learn through silent observation about the world. To add words to the experience is to create context, to shape experience and imbue understanding. As such, most photography books keep the text in the front or the back, to be taken separately from the sequence of images themselves. The result is a feeling of silence akin to being in a gallery or museum.
Inspired by this historic book, photographer Thomas Roma collaborated with his son Giancarlo for their second book together: The Waters of Our Times (powerHouse Books). Now in its second printing, this time in hardcover format, The Waters of Our Times is designed with the same size, layout, and font as The Sweet Flypaper of Life, sharing its idea: the story of New York through the lens of an older woman. This time, the story takes place in Brooklyn, the home of both Roma men.
The book features 142 of Thomas Roma’s photographs spanning most of his career, beginning with the first photograph in the book, which was taken from his first roll of film shot in 1972. It’s an image of a perfectly manicured front lawn of a two family home, with its white picket fence missing two posts, like a gap-toothed child. Giancarlo Roma begins the story underneath: “Most mornings I wake up with a song running through my head. I know I’ve heard it before, I just don’t remember where or when.”
Here the lyrics of “Follow” (written by Jerry Merrick and sung by Brooklyn’s own Richie Havens) are introduced into the narrative, and spun throughout the book, which also takes its title from one of the verses. Switching between lyrics and his own prose, Giancarlo brilliantly weaves a web of hard won wisdom that interconnects with the spirit that resides deep within his father’s photographs.
As Giancarlo writes, “Somewhere in the space between the things you promised yourself you’d never forget and the things you didn’t care to notice, that’s where most of life happens…. As much as we’d like to tell ourselves that one thing or the other must be the truth, that it’s all either standing still or flying by, it’s not. Life is a current that moves on its own time…. Whether you swim with it or against it, you’ll still end up being carried along.”
Much in the same way The Waters of Our Times flows through your heart and you mind, so do the pages turn and life unfolds, perfectly swelling and cresting in this magical little book.
All photographs ©Thomas Roma, courtesy of powerHouse Books
Miss Rosen is a New York-based writer, curator, and brand strategist. There is nothing she adores so much as photography and books. A small part of her wishes she had a proper library, like in the game of Clue. Then she could blaze and write soliloquies to her in and out of print loves.
