LEFTOVER LIVES
Histoires de premier choix pour photos de seconde main
First choice stories for secondhand photography
AVAILABLE HERE
0FR Paris
Librairie du Désordre
Artazart
Librairie les Caractères
MARIE JEANNE
Le Monte en l’Air
Librairie du Palais de Tokyo
Folies d’Encre
Librairie Sans Titre
PROJECT
Leftover Lives is a friendly, pictorial, and literary adventure.
Driven by an increasing curiosity for vernacular photography, the discovery of hidden gems, and reinterpretation, Simon and I scoured auctions, flea markets, and the attics of our friends’ ancestors to unearth thousands of photographic originals. Glass plates, slides, negatives—we scanned an incredible amount, exploring the forgotten lives of unknown people.
To breathe new life into them, and let’s admit it, to have a bit of fun, we paused on certain photographs, adding a caption, a comment, or a thought attributed to the photographed person, thus altering their meaning, interpretation, and intended narrative.
Roman Jehanno
THE BOOK
Self-publishing has this advantage: it allows us to approach the book as an object with complete freedom.
The 128 pages that make up this book are a perfect multiple of 32—printing specialists will appreciate this neat number, which significantly reduces paper waste. As for the 13 x 18 cm format, it echoes the codes of photographic prints: you know, the ones our parents would print among the multitude of 10 x 15 cm photos, that “large format”—not so large, really—but perfect for framing a school portrait to give to grandma.
So, a 13 x 18 cm format, with a softcover made from Pergraphica Glowing Yellow 230 g/m2 paper, dyed in the mass in a yellow reminiscent of a very famous photographic film brand. The two small flaps on the cover will allow you to keep your favorite pages easily within reach.
Escourbiac, has given us the great pleasure of providing a 90 g/m2 Munken Print White paper. This exceptional paper gives book and printing enthusiasts a little flutter in their stomachs, who won’t hesitate to exclaim, “Wow, a Munken! That’s amazing!”
Estelle’s work on the design and layout, as you’ll see, is of exceptional elegance, with a devotion to minimalism and detail. That’s the benefit of working with people who are truly passionate about what they do.
The book itself, therefore, is worth it. It can proudly sit on your shelf as a top-notch piece of printing—imagine that it also holds humor and life. “What a combo!” you might rightly say.
Leftover Lives is 100% self-published and will be printed in a limited run of 1,000 copies.
THE AUTHORS
ROMAN JEHANNO
Roman Jehanno is a photographer and filmmaker. Trained at Gobelins School in Paris, he developed from the start a dual career in both commercial photography and fine art photography. For nearly a decade, he traveled the world to meet savoir-faire people and capture their portraits within their environments. This work, at the intersection of documentary and conceptual photography, earned him the Hasselblad Masters first prize in 2014. Roman continues his pursuit of beauty and his escape from oblivion through his series Eikasia et Clic Clack Kodak. In 2022, he directed SÁMIS, a documentary about the eponymous people, reflecting his interest in the preservation of cultures and traditions.
In 2016, his encounter with Simon Frankart, then an art director in a Parisian advertising agency, marked the beginning of a fruitful collaboration. From their friendship, the Leftover Lives project was born. This work brings together anonymous photographs to which Simon and Roman add imagined dialogues, captions, or stories. The project approaches collective memory and oblivion with a fresh perspective, offering a humorous reflection on the passage of time. Initially shared through an Instagram account, Leftover Lives has now become a book.
SIMON FRANKART
Simon Frankart, also known as Petites Luxures, is a French graphic designer and illustrator. Born in Reims in 1980, he moved to Paris in 1999 to study applied arts. After nearly 20 years working as an art director in advertising, Simon decided to fully dedicate himself to his personal artistic project, Petites Luxures, which he launched on Instagram in 2014. His minimalist ink drawings, both erotic and poetic, explore sensuality with a delicate touch of humor. By playing with wordplay and simplicity of line, he has created an aesthetic that has captivated a wide audience. Within just a few years, Petites Luxures became a social media phenomenon, reaching over a million followers and leading to exhibitions in cities such as New York, San Francisco, Rome, Los Angeles, and Paris.
In 2016, Simon met Roman Jehanno, with whom he shares a passion for memory and imagery. From this meeting, the Leftover Lives project was born, a tribute to collective memory. Initially developed as an Instagram account, the project has since evolved into a book, where anonymous photographs are reinterpreted and paired with imaginary stories.
