Show & Tell

“Two years ago, when I was eight years old, my dad asked me if I wanted to work on a project with him. He had an idea that I could write about some of his pictures for a book. I said I would try, but I wasn’t really sure how the project would turn out or even how we would begin.... I began writing this book in January 2000 and wrote the final piece in December 2000. Looking back, I think my dad wanted me to see the world through his eyes from my perspective and write about it…. I feel as if my dad created a world for me by taking pictures. And while I was writing about a picture, I was living in that world. I hope you can come too.”
—Giancarlo T. Roma

The idea to collaborate on Show & Tell with his son Giancarlo came to famed photographer Thomas Roma after he read his son’s second grade journal and a homemade book he’d written called How to Train Your Dog. Taken with how well Giancarlo expressed himself and how clear he was about his feelings, Roma asked his son if he would be interested in collaborating on a book. Giancarlo agreed, and after discussing several possibilities, they decided that Giancarlo would write about dad’s Brooklyn photographs—from his earliest days as a photographer in 1973 through today. They began with a box of fifty photographs, and edited according to Giancarlo’s preferences, turning the process of creating the book into a dialog between father and son, photographer and writer. The result is Show & Tell, a charming look at life through a father’s eyes from a child’s perspective.

“What an extra-special collaboration: son and father introducing us to their picture neighborhood!! Bravo to both!!”
—Fred Rogers creator and host, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

Giancarlo T. Roma, born in 1991, lives in Brooklyn and is in the fifth grade. He is an avid chess and baseball player, and is the shortstop for the Brooklyn Bonnies.; Thomas Roma, two-time recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, has exhibited internationally and had one-man shows at The Museum of Modern Art and the International Center Of Photography in New York. His work is in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum Of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Canadian Center for Architecture, Montreal. The Director of Photography at Columbia University in New York, author of Enduring Justice (powerHouse Books, 2001), Come Sunday, Found In Brooklyn, Sunset Park, and Higher Ground, and founding contributing photographer to DoubleTake, Roma lives in Brooklyn.