Words and interview: Ryan Mason
As a photographer, I’m a huge advocate of photobooks. And there is a reason for why I've become obsessed with observing photography through books. We now live in a world where we take thousands of photos and almost never look at them again. They sit on our phones and we scroll past in seconds. But a photobook is the complete opposite. Someone has made choices about moments that matter, what order they come in, the narrative it tells and also how it feels in your hands and that new book smell (If you know, you know!)
Photography in print is elevated and you're unable to scroll it; you can sit with it, observe it and physically turn the page. And the best ones make you feel like you are there in the moment. Photobooks invite you into the photographer’s world to see their perspective.
As a football fan, it’s even more interesting when the subject is about the beautiful game and the author is a professional footballer competing at an elite level in the best league in the world. At this level, the game and people involved are very guarded and we only usually see the game from a distance through a polished media lens, where we only have access for 90 minutes through a screen or in the stands.
However, Everton’s Merlin Röhl and his debut photobook brings that guard down, giving us access to his first season at the club. From wandering the streets of Liverpool, to the staff behind the scenes plus all those quiet moments in between games. Röhl takes us on a journey as a toffee; the training ground, the travelling, pre-match routines, the changing room atmosphere, a view from the dugout, plus his very own dedicated fond farewell to the club legend that is Seamus Coleman.
But this isn’t any other photobook launch. It’s really about a young professional athlete coming to a new country, a big city, trying to make a new home, building a connection with the Evertonians and sharing this story through the medium of photography.
I had the privilege of having a photographer-to-photographer chat with Merlin on his journey with photography, the fulfilment it brings and his debut access-all-areas style photobook, ‘Life with Everton’ just before his book launch, which I was also honoured to host at the Hill Dickinson.
Merlin firstly, massive congratulations on your debut photobook ‘Life with Everton’, how does it feel to be a published photographer?
Thanks - I’m a bit excited, but also a little bit frightened. I think every creative person knows putting something out there and sharing it with the world is a little bit scary. I think it’s the same with football, but I have so much confidence in my ability and I don't even think about it because I train everyday, but with photography, it’s just a hobby I picked up two years ago. I have a vision of how I want to photograph, but I need so much more technical abilities to put my vision out there. But I still want to share my work and show the supporters the honest life behind the scenes.
You mention you’ve only been doing photography for two years, but how did it all begin?
My father did film photography and would always capture memories when I was younger. There was a time when he stopped, but then I was always surrounded by other people who loved taking pictures. For myself, it wasn't until I got an injury and I wanted to fill my time, so I picked up a digital camera, a Fuji X100V with the film simulations in camera. I really liked the colours and vibes, so from then on I got into photography.
It took a really disappointing time with your injury to be able to explore photography, but it’s also interesting because your injury enabled you to really hone your craft…
I’ve learned over the years that every positive and negative that comes at you is about working on the situation and dealing with it and great things will eventually happen. I wasn’t thinking about anything other than just picking up the camera. I think it's important that when you start something it isn’t about thinking of the future and becoming good at something. It's just to enjoy it. Now that I've been taking photos for a few years, I understand it’s about being in the moment and not putting pressure on taking photos or making a photobook - it's just about enjoying the moment and the photos will come.
Is there a particular photograph you took that made you think, “I really want to explore photography properly”?
I think at the beginning I took so many bad photos. I was shooting manual mode and trying to work out what was going wrong, but slowly I was making progress. I was seeing photos evolve, seeing style change, switching between black and white and colour film stock, deciding what was right for me - whether that was capturing dreamy artistic or realistic documentary images. It was more of a case of the process and shooting multiple images that really made me want to explore rather than a singular image.
You mention you started with digital photography, what made you develop your craft and explore analogue?
I think with everything in life, I like things that are slower. Everything is just so fast paced in normal life and when you shoot digital everything continues to be fast. I needed something to slow me down and to focus on technical aspects, but also to enjoy that part of photography more. I think it was also the colours after getting my first film back; the colours were so vibrant and they had so much more feeling when I looked at the photos. I just thought I’m not switching to digital again unless I want to shoot slow shutter or try some other new techniques. It really was just the colours that hooked me!
I think it’s also the sense of excitement with shooting film and not knowing until you send them to the lab and receive them back or you develop them yourself…
Exactly, I don't know about you, but I'm really self-critical when I see a photo. Sometimes it stops me taking photos (when shooting digitally) because I’m not happy with the shots even though conditions are great to capture. But with film, it doesn’t stop - you’re just shooting and you’re not thinking about the outcome. I’m just trying my best. It’s similar to football, i’m not thinking about the outcome and i’m just trying my best.
What do you think photography gives you that football doesn’t?
Ummm, i don’t really know how to answer as football gives me so much that photography doesn’t. For me it’s something I can do next to my football and enjoy, but now it's becoming a little bit bigger because of my situation as a footballer and the possibility of sharing something that people might like to see. Football is the main thing and it gives me so much that I’m just trying to give a personal and honest view.
Do you find that photography changes the way you look at everyday life?
Yeah, completely! It changes what I have in my head, so if I’ve only got black and white film I'm thinking of shapes…plus also the lens I have on my camera - if I have a 28mm then I'm thinking about the bigger frame and all those layers. When I have a 50mm, I’m looking for one situation or one subject. If I have colour film, I’m thinking about colours that work together and what interests me. Even the light and the way it falls on the trees, I'm just trying to think what looks good with my eyes and therefore would look good on camera - I’m still trying to work on this process because sometimes by eye, it looks good, but in camera it doesn’t.
Yeah I totally get that. As you start to develop and hone your craft you start to become more aware of the light and see different angles and it’s just about training your eye more and more.
Football is such an intense career and you live and breathe it - what’s it like merging photography into that world? Being in a new changing room and carrying your camera around…how does that come into place?
One thing about football is that everyone is just so used to cameras. Everyone is just completely calm about it. I think it's also a lot about the relationship with the players as well. The relationship with players developed over half a year and I'm now so much closer with the guys that it's just been accepted that a camera comes with me. It’s the same feeling as street photographers with just being there and nobody cares - I can move around and get nice photos. Obviously it’s about being aware of people's feelings, so if somebody is having a bad day or a bad training session then i’m not going to photograph them. I think it's mainly about living my life slower and being more conscious of my surroundings and the camera has become a part of me.
I look at your photos and it’s interesting you mention the street photography style because I really picked that up from your work, which is about capturing those authentic moments in time. Being in your position as a footballer is a really authentic and interesting angle that not everyone can see into that world. So, it brings that authenticity that Everton and football fans find fascinating. What I love about your work is its unpolished imagery and credit to you for sharing as it's really rare to see, in what is normally captured through a very polished media lens. You can see the players must be really comfortable with you doing it because you can see it in the images!
Honestly, we have 2-3 hours of football a day which is really intense and exhausting then the remainder of the day is relaxing. There is a need for this relaxation to be able to go again for the next session, so that's why a lot of my images are of people relaxed, trying to recharge and recover and I'm just capturing them moments in their space.
Where do you get a lot of your inspiration from to shoot this street/documentary style?
I watched quite a bit of YouTube and I had a phase where I would look through a lot of photobooks from photographers like Henri Cartier Bresson and Harry Gruyaert...I'd study these, then I would go shoot, then come back to the books. There are so many photographers I look at and try to understand what they are doing and the way they are shooting.
A couple of weeks ago, I went to a museum and looked at the paintings from Monet and I’m so hooked by the dreamy kind of feeling he creates. For me, he captures that more than any other painting or photo and I’m trying to capture that more in my own work by using slow shutter through film. That’s something I’m trying to develop more and see how it goes.
I don’t know about you, but as soon as you catch that bug for photography it becomes all encompassing. Everyday when i’m looking around i’m always looking from a photographic perspective compared to what a general person may look at the world.
Do you ever feel like you would want to stop this just for one day so you could see the world like a normal person would? Being calm and just enjoying the world? Or do you feel like it’s a nice thing to always have this photographic eye?
It really depends on the situation, so when I’m enjoying a moment with my kids I switch off to enjoy that moment, but sometimes I might find the light is really nice so I think I must go get my camera, so it really depends on the situation and I can switch the photographic eye on and off! It sounds like you’re also starting to develop this photographic eye - do you find you’re carrying a camera around with you most times?
Yeah, everytime!
And I’ve seen in previous video interviews that the Leica M6 seems to be your choice of camera?
Yeah, I try to stay with that one camera - it's a beautiful camera and I focus on being minimalistic with the amount of gear, so I have this camera, the 28mm and the 50mm lens and try to develop my style.
Oh and I just remembered that you asked me about inspiration <shows copy of Glory Hamburg edition>. You may have noticed I’ve bought a lot of your magazines and it's been a real inspiration when developing my own book - if you look at this cover and my cover you may see a lot of similarity!
I’m definitely using that as a quote - Thank you! Thanks for buying your copies of Glory, I’m glad it's also helped with your journey too.
I really want to talk about the book now - talk to us about how it came about? How involved were you in the whole process - from sequencing to choice of paper?
I think we worked really fast on this because football is so fast paced and we have a new season again, so it was important to get this out as quickly as possible. The idea came from Leighton Baines who is also into photography and produced a photobook for players and staff after the 2018/19 season to give families a view from behind closed doors and something to remember the season by. So that was my inspiration to making a photobook - we talked about it and I started to pull together all my images from my season. It was actually Leighton who introduced me to Glory as he also bought some magazines previously, so we talked about how we wanted a book together and I was really keen to add my words to accompany the images to communicate my motivation for football then it was a case of trying to put it into chapters. I think I was involved in everything, working closely with the guys at Everton to get this produced and printed quickly. I also have a creative agency in Germany, a friend of mine since high school who helped with the design of the book. There were a lot of decisions to make that can be quite overwhelming, but got to a point where it was all in place and accepted this is the start of my photography journey and I’m really happy with how it has ended up - although I still don’t have a copy, but I’m very excited to get one!
You should be massively proud of it - every photographer loves to see their work in print, so kudos for getting it over the line!
Talking about some of the photos, that cover shot is the iconic shot - tell me about the seconds leading up to it?
I was so in the moment and the camera happened to be next to me, but I enjoyed experiencing it so much, I just took one picture, but I wasn’t really thinking about the picture, I was just soaking up the moment. That’s why the photo means so much to me, because I see that image and it brings back those feelings and that special moment. That’s why it made the cover shot.
When you look at some of these photos, you must get the same feelings and emotions coming back…
Exactly, and for me it felt like over the season I was getting closer to my teammates and it felt like I was contributing more to the team. I was playing more, I scored a goal, but before that it was a lot about trying to train hard and get minutes on the pitch. I feel like you can see that when looking at some of the pictures. I also like to see in these how I’ve developed as a player and my year. I tried to put this into words too as I think it's hard for people to understand how much it takes to adapt to another country, another culture and for some it can take a while, but I’m someone who wants to feel really close to the club, everything around the club and i think this shows in the images.
If you had to choose just one photograph from the book to explain your first year at Everton, which would it be and why?
At the end of the book, I have a chapter dedicated to Seamus Coleman where you see all the players close together, so happy, having a great night and also a little bit of sadness that the season ends. For me personally, it was going really well at the end of the season and then the season stopped and I just really wanted to play more, hoping the season wouldn’t end! I think you can see that and feel that in the last chapter. The farewell to Seamus was a really special thing from me as he was such a special person and helped me connect to all the players. There are a few shots where he’s standing behind the players and talks to everybody - he goes around having a great connection with everyone.
That was also such a special moment for someone else's career and the fact you were able to capture that is a really nice chapter to have at the end of the book.
Obviously fans and photographers are going to pick up this book, what are you hoping that readers are going to feel or take from it?
That’s a good question and difficult to answer. When you put something out there, it’s more about personal feelings and experiences. I just try to put something out there that's authentic and honest and I just hope people can acknowledge that. I want people to really feel like they are behind-the-scenes, that it’s pure and real. I just hope people like it! I just want to share how I think and how I feel about the world. I try to show togetherness and a team trying to win and everything that comes with it.
And so what’s next for you? It's a really exciting time for you, your family and Evertonians. But where do you want to take your photography now? Do you see there being a second and third book? Do you see there being an exhibition? I’d love to know what’s next?!
That’s so hard to tell. That’s the future - it could be a thing where I publish another photobook, but i can;t really tell because it needs to feel right, it needs to feel pure and i don;t want to make another photobook. It needs to be something I’m proud of like the first photobook. I just need to keep making photos and see what feels right. One big idea is me and Leighton getting an exhibition at some point to combine photos from 10-15 years ago and then my photos and hopefully that is one thing we can think about in the future. He needs to feel comfortable with that and it needs to be the right situation. First and foremost, I’m a football player that loves to play football, i want to play in the starting 11 and I want to win games and that's the first thing. I will just have to see what feels right in the moment.
You can pre-order Merlin's book, Life with Everton, by clicking here.
