Published by Thames & Hudson in 2011, *Paolo Roversi* is a compact, 144-page introduction to a photographer whose practice moves between fashion, portraiture, the nude and artistic photography. Issued within the Photofile series, the volume gathers 64 duotone illustrations, placing the emphasis on sustained looking rather than extensive documentation or commentary.

Roversi’s images are distinguished by their use of large-format Polaroid film and by an atmosphere in which glamour is tempered by vulnerability. Whether working in monochrome or carefully controlled colour, he treats the studio less as a neutral setting than as a space of suspension. Figures seem to emerge gradually from darkness; softened contours, restrained gestures and close attention to light give the photographs their romantic, sometimes enigmatic character.

The book also situates this visual language within a career shaped by fashion. Born in Ravenna in 1947, Roversi discovered photography as a teenager and moved to Paris in the early 1970s after meeting photographer Peter Knapp. Work as an assistant to Laurence Sackman provided an important technical apprenticeship, while subsequent collaborations with models, designers, magazines and advertising clients placed his practice within the professional structures of international fashion image-making.

For a collector, the value of this volume lies in the concentration of its survey. Its selection brings several connected aspects of Roversi’s work—fashion, portraiture, the female figure and tonal experimentation—into a single, accessible sequence. The duotone presentation is especially suited to assessing how light, shadow and surface operate across his photographs. Rather than claiming to be exhaustive, *Paolo Roversi* offers a concise reference point: a focused account of how editorial and commissioned photography can retain intimacy, ambiguity and a strongly individual sense of form.