About the Book:
Since they were founded in 2001, Trolley Books has been highly regarded as a maverick independent publisher of photography, reportage, contemporary art and recently, literature. Trolley’s founder Gigi Giannuzzi is a well-known figure in the publishing and photographic industries for his original and dynamic approach to photobook publishing as well as his unrelenting support of photographers and important but underexposed stories. In a shock to the photography and publishing worlds he was diagnosed with cancer and passed away on Christmas Eve 2012.
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Shortly before he died work began on a new book Trolleyology (Trolley Books, 2013), a look at the story behind Gigi and Trolley, which also will mark the company’s first decade in publishing. Trolleyology presents previously unseen material from the making of the award-winning books, including personal images, contact sheets and photographers recollections, documenting the unique stories from each book and the importance of this small but potent publishing house. It also features interviews with our photographers, writers, artists and friends, from the worlds of photography, art and publishig including Nan Goldin, Alex Majoli, Stanley Greene, Paolo Pellegrin, Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, Tom Stoddart, Nina Berman, Thomas Dworzak, Alixandra Fazzina, Robin Maddock, Jamie Morgan, Paul Fryer, Sarah Lucas, Polly Morgan, Mat Collishaw, Le Gun, Iphgenia Baal, Sean O’Hagan, Julian Stallabrass and Barry Miles. The book contains a foreword by Serpentine Gallery directors Julia Peyton-Jones and Hans Ulrich Obrist.
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Miss Rosen’s Contribution:
Miss Rosen wrote a short text for Trolleyology in memory of Gigi Giannuzzi.
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Excerpt from Text:
Harlem, 2011. Gigi stays uptown so we meet outside a deli on 125 Street on a sweaty summer day. It has been years, and he wears it well, coming out of the crowd with that swagger that he wears like a button-down vest with an open-collar shirt. He orders lunch at the bodega, algo en español, then we turn the corner, heading down the block to the place he’s staying and we’re talking ten years of Trolley. Gigi is gloriously grim, in equal parts realist and idealist, a high-octane cocktail of masculinity set in flesh and bone. He’s reflective, moody, and meandering along a path he has carved for himself throughout his life. And in his wake is a library’s worth of books, just a few of which he pulls from a suitcase. It’s déjà vu all over again; or as Anita Loos said, “Fate keeps on happening.”
—Miss Rosen
Brooklyn, 2013
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Photographs courtesy of Trolley Books