Paul Graham (2) (1956–)

Films is Paul Graham's eulogy to the physical material of photography: Film. The 20th century's greatest medium has undergone a catastrophic decline over the past decade as digital cameras have swept aside the traditional process of taking photographs. Film has died: Kodacolor, Fujicolor, Tri-X, Kodachrome, Ektacolor - all evocative names for any photographer - are now gone or fading fast. Yet this magical material is a true product of both science: silver salts suspended in gelatin emulsion show more on celluloid base, and magical alchemy: it could capture light. Film became the defining material of 20th century creativity, and is ubiquitous to every great artist of photography and film making.

While examining his past 30 years of work for the 2009 survey exhibition and book, Graham became enamoured with the material of his craft, and began to reflect upon the physical substance by which he, and all photographers, made their images. Besides scanning his images for the survey, he also scanned the blank film ends and unexposed frames from each body of work to gather an alternative survey, a 'negative retrospective' of his practice. What first appears to be abstract dots, blobs or colour forms, are in fact just greatly magnified images of the raw film emulsion - the color dye clouds formed in the exposure and development of film. These images are not abstract at all, but extreme close-ups of the film's structure - the red, green and blue dyes that form film emulsion, which comprise each and every celluloid image in existence. Their beauteous complication, the wonder of their granular form, irrespective of what they describe, is given here for us to enjoy.

Graham presents us a timely tribute to the passing of film. The grains, color dyes and black and white crystals, make images of beauty, simplicity and scientific record. Part wistful homage, part farewell, part visual wonder, Films is a book for anyone who engaged with photographic material in the 20th century. show less

Paul Graham fait-il courir jaune pour toujours? comprend une série de photographies abordant la question éphémère de ce que nous recherchons et apprécions dans la vie - amour, richesse, beauté, réalité aux yeux clairs ou un monde de rêve intérieur? L'œuvre se faufile dans et hors de trois groupes d'images: des photographies d'arcs-en-ciel de l'ouest de l'Irlande, d'un rêveur endormi et de magasins d'or aux États-Unis. L'imagerie nous conduit de la réalité au rêve et à show more l'illusion, entre faits et phénomènes spectraux, entrelacés les uns dans les autres. Est-ce que Yellow Run Forever? refuse de réduire le monde à un schéma connaissable, mais embrasse plutôt le puzzle - qu'il n'y a pas de significations singulières, de réponses directes ou d'or en attente au bout de l'arc-en-ciel. Pourtant, il y a des visions surprenantes dans le quotidien, qu’elles soient «belles» ou «laides», qu’il y ait des rêves qui valent la peine d’être rêvés, des scènes magiques à voir et de vrais moments d’émerveillement à trouver en frissonnant le miroir de la vie. show less

Spanning the full length of England and into Edinburgh along the 'Great North Road', 'A1' records the people, buildings, and landscape of early 1980s Britain. Now 40 years old, this book is as much art as it is a historical document of the years of Margaret Thatcher’s government and the UK’s declining industrial base. Uniting the tradition of social documentary with the fresh approach of new colour, Graham's first book was transformative on photography in the UK and paved the way for a show more new generation of British colour photographers to emerge. show less

This is a collection of photographs examining contemporary Japanese society. The photographer, Paul Graham, identifies a collective amnesia in Japan which, 50 years after the end of World War II, obscures the memory of total defeat and unconditional surrender. Simultaneously, the book recognizes the cloud of benevolence masking the true source of political power. There are pictures of a young girl, an elderly statesman, an atom flash, a candy wrapper, and a cloud of cherry blossoms. This show more book reveals the invisible by showing the visible, and is a volume of images about a world the West neither really knows nor understands. show less