Time frame

Photographer Paolo Roversi captures the essence of Italian furniture company Poliform as it marks 50 years of high craft and creativity

Photographer Paolo Roversi, best known for his work in fashion, is a true aesthete. His eye sees truth and beauty in everything, from supermodels to inanimate objects, the natural to the man-made. Even the camera that he uses – a large-format Deardorff constructed from Honduran mahogany with brass and aluminium fittings – is admired for its tactile, voluptuary qualities. ‘It is so sensual, with its wood and its folds,’ says the Paris-based Italian photographer. Roversi likes the simple slowness of the camera, its essential craving for light. He works with the Deardorff ’s lens wide open, to the very highest stop, theorising that a long exposure makes for a more intense image, and renders an object’s presence stronger and deeper. Now Roversi has applied his technique and philosophy to photographing furniture, working with Poliform to create a new book, Time, Light, Space, seeking to highlight the life, soul and substance in the Italian manufacturer’s products.