Colour has not been the only expansion. Graham\u2019s enthusiasm for the work of Michael Schmidt and Volker Heinze, two German photographers he visited and drew inspiration from in the 1980s, also proved influential. Both had made experimental and involved series, drawn from the experiences of living through a modern fractured Germany. It led Graham to strategies of metaphor and suggestion that would go on to govern the New Europe and Empty Heaven series and much that he has completed since. Beyond the single picture, the series \u2013 or \u201cslippage\u201d \u2013 across the page would knowingly expand a book\u2019s potential. The uncelebrated (yet excellent) Television Portraits, made between 1988 and 1996 would sensitise such casual interiors as friend\u2019s apartments \u2013 as if the smallest detail, the light from a TV screen or, elsewhere, the glimmer of a smoking man in a nightclub, could betray an age. This nourishment would lead to an extended engagement with Belfast, Zurich and several other European cities and coincided with substantial fellowships and gallery shows that considerably enhanced his position within photography. In the Paintings series, gathered from the walls of tense and claustrophobic interiors, and long before Houellebecq\u2019s confessional shuffles through a soulless Paris reached Radio 4, Graham maps explicit and urgent communications of lust and desperation, embedded on the scratched, coloured booths where casual lives meet and pass. SteidlMACK\u2019s excellent new monograph draws together these series, situating them among the more widely known elements of Paul Graham\u2019s career to date. From A1 \u2013 the Great North Road, Graham\u2019s own rendering of the American \u201cjourney\u201d template, to the recent A Shimmer of Possibility, Graham has been a severe and articulate presence within contemporary practice. The folios, in this well designed book, are convincing and extensive. Furthermore, the work is contextualised by serious and fluent essays. David Chandler\u2019s text, in particular, is a layering of interview, literature and chronology, which locates the book\u2019s extensive folios through disparate and rich influences. The book closes with thumbnails of the page layouts of all Graham\u2019s prior publications, revealing rhythm and consistent strengths across the photographer\u2019s career. Looking at the pictures again, both here and as they have punctuated some of the survey shows in the recent attempts to rekindle some kind of British History of Photography, I\u2019m conscious of Paul Graham\u2019s centrality to recent practice (and also that he has been lost to America, where he now teaches and works). The later work has grown to articulate difficult moments in history with profound depth. This valuable collection shows clearly that the photographer\u2019s efforts to progress his medium, and its deployment, remains dangerous, brave and insistent.<\/p>\n \n Ken Grant<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Paul Graham<\/p>\n Published by SteidlMACK www.steidlville.com \u00a340 (376pp Hardback) \n \n \n \n \n \n \n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2151,"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":[22],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Graham_Photo_Cover\"](\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/Graham_Photo_Cover.jpg\")