Guillaume Rolland started sailing at the age of ten when his grandmother dropped him off at sailing school. The following summer, he bought his first dinghy. He has remained faithful to sailing ever since. "I love the life around the boat, the friendships, the preparation and the club spirit," says Rolland. He spent at least two months a year on the water with the family boat for 15 years. At the same time, he learnt to race on his Star boat on the Seine near Paris. Today, he also sails a kite in the summer. In England, he acquired a classic 29-foot ketch, designed by Laurent Giles in 1946, which is moored in Brittany. Rolland describes it as a heavy, seaworthy yacht in the best sense of the word. "I believe that sailing is the last real freedom left on earth," he explains. It is a domain in which you cannot lie and modesty is the most important factor.
Photography as a second passion
Rolland started his second hobby as a teenager when he grabbed his father's Nikon camera. He quickly became enthusiastic about capturing motifs in natural frames. A friend of his father's lent the family a Leica M4-P in the summer of 1994. Rolland immediately fell in love with the camera and bought a Leica M6 in October. Since then, he has photographed exclusively with this model, using only two lenses and always using the same black and white film. He wears the camera around his neck every day and his finger is always ready to pull the trigger. This forces him to consciously perceive what is happening around him. "I feel like I'm on the hunt," says Rolland, describing the feeling he gets on his photo excursions. Sometimes he is overcome by the desire to scream for joy.
Influence on work as an interior designer
Photography perfects one's own skills in composition and harmony, explains Rolland. These skills help him enormously when designing interiors. As head of the yacht division for many years and now head of Studio Liaigre, he designs interiors such as the 100-metre Feadship "Pi" or Sanlorenzo models (Alloy, SD118), which are characterised by their simple beauty. His designs are based on ingenious layouts. They often surprise with detailed solutions borrowed from sailing. Breton, who lives in Paris, combines his two passions of sailing and photography in his professional work. He transfers the composition and harmony of his everyday photography directly into his professional life. His photographs are taken while travelling, including in the USA, and document his eye for detail and proportion.
This article first appeared in BOOTE EXCLUSIV 2/2021 and has been updated for this online version.
Sören Gehlhaus
Stellvertretender Chefredakteur BOOTE EXCLUSIV
