Heritage Craft, Reimagined. Complimentary Global Shipping. Free Trade Certified.
Chroma I
Sun rays like stilts with Romain Laprade
Photographer Romain Laprade on Rhomerian cinema, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West, and much more.
Date
June 26th, 2025
Author
Beni
Photography
Romain Laprade
Shot on New York's famed Fire Island, the 12 rugs of Chroma I, were captured on a cloudless day overlooking the ocean. Seen here (being cheekily used a beach towel) is 1963, a geometric design that finds its namesake in the year that the Josef Albers, Day and Night: Homage to the Square, was released.
We first worked with Romain in Casablanca when Studio KO's Intersection collection made its debut in Milan. Not too long down the road, we later collaborated again in Barcelona, shooting those same rugs in the iconic home of gallerist Miquel Alzueta. Now, we're thrilled to share his latest spread: a catalog of sun-ripened images that tell the story of Chroma I, our capsule collection of flatwoven stripes by the sea.
Views from the desert photographed by Romain in 2024 and 2018.
"I think I’ve always needed to see the world differently — to see a better side of it and to capture that somehow."
From the largest Buddha statue in the world in the mountains of Bhutan to lone cacti in Palm Springs, Romain's photographs capture a kind of stillness—a clarity that feels otherworldly, warm, and distinctly calm. Over email during his travels, we asked him a few questions about what shaped his eye over time and which projects he has cherished in his career the most.
Nostalgic like a polaroid, Romain shot Chroma I in a Pines Modern house located on the dunes of Fire Island designed and built by Peter Asher between 1968 and 1969.
BENI
So much of your portfolio presents like frames of film; Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City comes to mind. Do you turn to cinema often for inspiration?
ROMAIN
I’m not a major cinephile, but people do have that impression of my work fairly often. I can't explain why that is, but it's a compliment that I'm happy to receive. I’m certainly influenced by some directors such as Pedro Almodóvar, Jim Jarmusch, and Wes Anderson. Asteroid city is a serendipitous example because I shot a series in the desert in 2018 before the movie was made. In 2023, when I saw the film, I was amazed to see and feel the connection between its aesthetic and the old photographs I took just five years before.
Stills from Éric Rohmer's Green Ray and Boyfriends and Girlfriends alongside Romain's photos from Cergy-Pontoise.
BENI
We read somewhere that Éric Rohmer was your favorite director, an alignment that feels obvious now that we’re mulling it over and picturing that horizon from The Green Ray. What is it about his way of seeing that you feel connected to?
ROMAIN
Yes, he is my favorite! I’ve always been touched by his articulation of atmosphere; the serenity in the images, the beauty in simplicity, and old-world France. One day, after watching L'ami de mon amie, I decided to travel to the city of Cergy-Pontoise, the town where the film was made, to capture its architecture through my own point of view. Outside of that special trip, in Paris sometimes I pass by pedestrian locations where he filmed, so simple on their own, and always think of him. Maybe I should work on some kind of Rohmer hommage...?
BENI
Like Rohmer was, your eye seems to be perpetually drawn to architecture. Could you share a few favorites from the very long list of iconic spaces that you’ve captured?
ROMAIN
Absolutely. There are many places where I've felt something very strong while shooting them. The Alain Capelieres Swimming Pool, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West, Luis Barragán's Cuadra San Cristobal in Mexico City, and the Sheats–Goldstein house designed by John Lautner.
Ripe in its depth of red and amber pigment, Tarocco's flatwoven design finds its namesake in the strawberry-scented blood oranges of Sicily.
Perfect for the dog days of summer, each flatwoven rug in the Chroma I collection offers a tidy and tight feel underfoot, like grains of packed sand on the beach.
A scene by the pool shot by Romain on Fire Island plus a collage of polaroids by David Hockney.
BENI
Do you have a sense of how your aesthetic formed over time?
ROMAIN
It's hard to say. I think I’ve always needed to see the world differently—to see a better side of it and to capture that somehow. Since the beginning of my life with photography, everything has come first from instinct. My eye gets caught by a detail of a sign or the facade of a building and it goes from there. I tend to notice spatial character before people.
BENI
Have any other photographers influenced your taste?
ROMAIN
Mostly American color photographers such has William Egglestone, Saul Leiter, and Meyerowitz. Also David Hockney’s photographic work....I wish he had done more of it! Harry Gruyaert too.
Luis Barragan's famed Cuadra San Cristobal in Los Clubes, Mexico, through Romain's lens.
BENI
Are there any places or spaces left on your bucket list to shoot?
ROMAIN
Brazil, Rio, many states in the US, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Waterfall house…
BENI
Do you remember the first photo that you ever took?
ROMAIN
My oldest memories of photography are from small disposable cameras that I asked my mum to buy when I was going on school trips as a kid. I was just shooting vignettes of things that drew me in so that I could save them to share with my parents when I returned back home.
Two simple stripes colored in overripe cherry and chocolate brown run up and down Cerise, a minimalist, flatwoven design.
BENI
If you could set the soundtrack to your portfolio of work, what are a few tracks that might feel right?
ROMAIN
- Tommy Guerrero's Sun Rays Like Stilts
- Paul Tanner & Andre Montero's Lost In The Stars
- Wanda Jackson's Funnel of Love
- Martin Denny's Enchanted Sea
Related Stories
04/07/2025
Intersection
From Marrakech, Rabat, and Casablanca to Milan, Studio KO's first collection designed for Beni is bound by themes of time and record-keeping, transposing artifacts of industrial society into meticulously handcrafted Moroccan rugs.
05/05/2025
Intersection
Fictions and photos of stones with artist Luis Úrculo
Artist, teacher and set designer Luis Úrculo turns fantastical ideas into tangible realities. For the unveiling of our first collection with Studio KO, he designed a space that will be remembered as an archive of archives. We asked him a few questions over email in the early spring of 2025 after the show's closing in Milan.
01/15/2025
Orpheu
Dancing shadows, daisy chains, and forgotten dreams transmogrify with Orpheu, a new collection designed by Garcé & Dimofski.