Published by Dewi Lewis, Dominoes is the debut photobook from photographer Roland Ramanan. It is a unique and vibrant mosaic of the lives that float in and around a particular corner of Hackney in London’s East End. The book is populated by intimate and moving pictures of people who have experienced addiction and pain as well as the deep joys of the community of which they are a part.
Roland is a London based documentary photographer, born in 1966 with a background in music and education. In 2012 he started a long term documentary project on this issue-affected group of people who gravitate towards this corner of East London called Gillett Square. The square was the starting point that lead him to many other aspects of the community. The work has been featured in Vice magazine among others and has won various awards including being shortlisted for the Royal Photographic Society documentary awards 2023. In 2022 he was one of the finalists in the Portrait of Britain awards.
The square was derelict and underdeveloped for years until, in the 1990s it became an experiment in urban regeneration. Like the Dominoes they play in the square, those lives are often precarious. For over ten years Ramanan was privileged to be allowed into the lives and homes of some of those he met, to photograph their fights and struggles; their families and their lovers. Some of these people are now his friends and some are no longer with us. The participants he is closest to like Nina, Paul and Bianca, form the heart of the book. The work gives us honest glimpses into lives that we may often turn away from but always with a sense of hope. Dominoes touches on the universal themes of love, death, hope and the evolution of urban communities.
Roland’s current project focuses on the London roller skate scene and its relationship to black culture.
Roland Ramanan: Dominoes
Dewi Lewis
texts by Richard Yeboa and Roland Ramanan
Designed by Victoria Forrest / VIKA Books
clothbound hardback
150 pages
104 duotone plates
240mm x 210mm
ISBN: 978-1-916915-06-0
£35.00
