![\"\u00a9](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/gra1.jpg?resize=470%2C396&ssl=1\" "\\"\u00a9")
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Burning Fields, Melmerby, North Yorkshire, Septmeber 1981 \u00a9 Paul Graham <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Susan Sontag once noted the pervasiveness of the misconception that photography\u2019s dual powers – \u2018to generate documents and to create works of visual art\u2019 – are necessarily opposed. In many ways the work of British photographer Paul Graham can be understood as an exploration, or negotiation, of the shifting relationships between the two forms of practice. His earliest published work, A1 – The Great North Road, for example, evinced an attachment to traditional themes of documentary practice, including the road trip, the national survey, and the particulars of working class life. Vitally and unexpectedly though (this was early 80\u2019s England) it achieved its ends through the defiantly irregular use of colour film and a large format camera.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Pittsburgh (man cutting grass) 2004 (A Shimmer of Possibility) \u00a9 Paul Graham <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n A similar balancing act structures his latest 12-book series, the acclaimed A Shimmer of Possibility, in which Graham sequences any number of photographic allusions, suggestions and evocations. Of course, the resonances and ambiguities of the work are a world away from the certainties of documentary procedure; but at the heart of the enterprise is a faith in the camera\u2019s prosaic and uncontroversial recording function. In other words Graham – unlike so many of his peers – stakes a claim for the artistic status of his photography without resorting to, say, digital manipulation, the staging of tableaux, or dallying with moving imagery.<\/p>\n Union Jack Flag in Tree, County Tyrone (Troubled Land) \u00a9 Paul Graham <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n His has been a restless and innovative career – one well-served by this intelligent and generous monograph. Early on Graham chose to dispense with the photojournalistic convention of the \u2018winning shot\u2019, or indeed the \u2018decisive moment\u2018, and he has instead built up distinct bodies of work which are most fully realised in book form. This volume surveys each project and concludes with an invaluable fully illustrated bibliography which reproduces every spread of each book he has authored. Thoughtful essays by David Chandler, Russel Ferguson and Michael Almereyda serve as useful guides.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Wrapped Tree #3, Financial District, Tokyo (Empty Heaven) \u00a9 Paul Graham <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In an interview in 2007 Graham remarked that one of MoMA curator John Szarkowski\u2019s greatest achievements had been the identification of a fertile artistic territory in the space between the demands of editorial commissions and the ossified conventions of fine art photography. As this retrospective amply demonstrates – from the sectarian Troubled Land to the graffitied Paintings; or from the Japanese Empty Heaven to the bleached white American Night – Graham\u2019s work repeatedly shows how rich in possibilities that area remains.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Paul Graham<\/p>\n Photographs 1981-2006<\/p>\n SteidlMACK, \u00a340, 400pp<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" British photographer Paul Graham has spoken in the past of his interest in working where the interests of documentary and art meet…’the point where they coalesce. That’s where photography is so powerful. And it’s not a small area; it’s a huge area, that can still be pushed, chipped away at, refined.’<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Guy Lane looks at a comprehensive overview of his work that surveys the range of his photography.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\u00a9](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/grshim.jpg?resize=470%2C354&ssl=1\" "\\"\u00a9")
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