Paul Graham (born 1956) is a British fine-art and

documentary photographer Documentary photography usually refers to a popular form of photography used to chronicle events or environments both significant and relevant to history and historical events as well as everyday life. It is typically undertaken as professional pho ...

. He has published three survey monographs, along with 17 other publications. His work has been exhibited in the Italian Pavilion of the 49th Venice Biennale (2001), Switzerland's national

Fotomuseum Winterthur Fotomuseum Winterthur is a museum of photography in Winterthur, Switzerland. History The museum was founded in 1993 and is dedicated to photography as art form and document, and as a representation of reality. Fotomuseum Winterthur is an art g ...

, and a solo exhibition at New York City's

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

. He was included in Tate's ''Cruel and Tender'' survey exhibition of 20th century photography (2003), and a European mid career survey exhibition at

Museum Folkwang Museum Folkwang is a major collection of 19th- and 20th-century art in Essen, Germany. The museum was established in 1922 by merging the Essener Kunstmuseum, which was founded in 1906, and the private Folkwang Museum of the collector and patr ...

, Essen, which toured to the

Deichtorhallen The Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Germany, is one of Europe's largest art centers for contemporary art and photography. The two historical buildings dating from 1911 to 1913 are iconic in style, with their open steel-and-glass structures. Their archi ...

, Germany, and

Whitechapel Gallery The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the fir ...

, London. A 2015 survey of his American work, ''The Whiteness of the Whale,'' was exhibited at the

High Museum of Art The High Museum of Art (colloquially the High) is the largest museum for visual art in the Southeastern United States. Located in Atlanta, Georgia (on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district), the High is 312,000 square feet (28, ...

in Atlanta. Graham has won the

Deutsche Börse Photography Prize Deutsch or Deutsche may refer to: *''Deutsch'' or ''(das) Deutsche'': the German language, in Germany and other places *''Deutsche'': Germans, as a weak masculine, feminine or plural demonym *Deutsch (word), originally referring to the Germanic ve ...

, the Hasselblad Award, the W. Eugene Smith Grant, received a Guggenheim Fellowship, and won the inaugural

Paris Photo Paris Photo is an annual international art fair dedicated to photography. It was founded in 1997, and is held in November at the Grand Palais exhibition hall and museum complex, located at the Champs-Élysées in the 8th arrondissement in Pari ...

-Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards prize for best photographic book of the past 15 years.

Life and career

Between 1981 and the end of 1982, Graham photographed people and places along the A1 road in Britain (which mainly parallels the Great North Road), from the Bank of England in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

, and travelling north. His portrait of the nation was published in 1983 as ''A1: The Great North Road.'' His book ''Empty Heaven'' is devoted to Japan; another, ''A Shimmer of Possibility,'' comprises 12 volumes examining everyday life in the USA.

Publications

Books of work by Graham

*''A1 - The Great North Road.'' Bristol: Grey, 1983. . **London: Mack, 2020. . With an introduction by Rupert Martin, and afterwords by Graham for the 1983 and the 2020 editions. *''Beyond Caring.'' Bristol: Grey, 1985. . **Books on Books 9. New York: Errata, 2010. . With essays by David Chandler and Jeffrey Ladd. Facsimile edition. **London: Mack, 2021. . With one additional photograph. *''Troubled Land.'' Bristol: Grey, 1987. . *''In Umbra Res.'' Bradford: National Museum of Photography, Film, and Television, 1991. *''New Europe.'' Fotomuseum Winterthur, 1992. . *''Empty Heaven.'' Zurich: Scalo, 1995. . *''Paul Graham.'' Contemporary Artists. Phaidon, London, 1996. With texts by Andrew Wilson, Carol Squiers,

Kazuo Ishiguro Sir Kazuo Ishiguro ( ; born 8 November 1954) is a British novelist, screenwriter, musician, and short-story writer. Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan, and moved to Britain in 1960 with his parents when he was five. He is one of the most cr ...

Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been bestsellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for his ...

and Graham, and interviews between Graham and

Gillian Wearing Gillian Wearing CBE, RA (born 10 December 1963) is an English conceptual artist, one of the Young British Artists, and winner of the 1997 Turner Prize. In 2007 Wearing was elected as lifetime member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. He ...

and

Lewis Baltz Lewis "Duke" Baltz (September 12, 1945 – November 22, 2014) was an American visual artist, photographer, and educator. He was an important figure in the New Topographics movement of the late 1970s.

. . *''End of an Age.'' Zurich: Scalo, 1999. . *''Paintings.'' New York, NY: Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, 2000. . *''American Night.'' Göttingen:

Steidl Steidl is a German-language publisher, an international publisher of photobooks, and a printing company, based in Göttingen, Germany. It was started in 1968 by Gerhard Steidl and is still run by him. Overview The company was started by Ger ...

Mack, 2003. . *''A Shimmer of Possibility.'' Göttingen: SteidlMack, 2007. . 12 volume hardback. **''A Shimmer of Possibility.'' Göttingen: SteidlMack, 2009. single volume softback. *''Paul Graham.'' Göttingen: SteidlMack, 2009. . *'' Europe: America.'' Madrid: La Fábrica, 2011. . Said to juxtapose two series, ''New Europe'' (1986–1992) and ''A Shimmer of Possibility'' (2004–2006). Accompanying an exhibition at the Fundación Botín in 2011/2012 curated by Vicente Todolí. *''Films.'' London: Mack, 2011. . *''The Present.'' London: Mack, 2012. . *''1981 & 2011.'' Gothenburg, Sweden:

Hasselblad Foundation The Hasselblad Foundation (in full: Erna and Victor Hasselblad Foundation), established in 1979 at the will of Victor Hasselblad, is a fully independent, not-for-profit foundation based at Götaplatsen in Gothenburg, Sweden. The main aim of the F ...

; London: Mack, 2012. . Produced in conjunction with his receiving the Hasselblad Award and an exhibition. Edited by Graham in collaboration with Dragana Vujanovic and Louise Wolthers from The Hasselblad Foundation and with a text by David Campany, "Noticing". Said to unite ''A1 – The Great North Road'' (1981) and ''The Present'' (2011). *''Does Yellow Run Forever?.'' London: Mack, 2014. . *''The Whitness of the Whale.'' London: Mack; San Francisco, Pier 24 Photography, 2015. . Exhibition catalogue. Includes ''American Night,'' ''A Shimmer of Possibility'' and ''The Present.'' With texts by David Chandler and Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa. *''Paris 11~15th November 2015.'' London: Mack, 2016. . *''Mother.'' London: Mack, 2019. .

Books edited by Graham

*''But Still, it Turns.'' London: Mack, 2021. . Includes work from

Gregory Halpern Gregory Halpern (born 1977) is an American photographer and teacher. He currently teaches at the Rochester Institute of Technology and is a nominee member of Magnum Photos. Halpern has published a number of books of his own work; ''Zzyzx'' won Ph ...

's ''ZZYZX'';

Vanessa Winship Vanessa Winship HonFRPS (born 1960) is a British photographer who works on long term projects of portrait, landscape, reportage and documentary photography. These personal projects have predominantly been in Eastern Europe but also the USA. W ...

's ''She Dances on Jackson'', Curran Hatleberg's ''Lost Coast'', Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa's ''One Wall a Web'', Richard Choi's ''What Remains'',

RaMell Ross ''Hale County This Morning, This Evening'' is a 2018 American documentary film about the lives of black people in Hale County, Alabama. It is directed by RaMell Ross and produced by RaMell Ross, Joslyn Barnes, Su Kim, and is Ross's first nonfictio ...

' ''South County'', Emanuele Bruti and Piergiorgio Casotti's collaborative ''Index G'', and Kristine Potter's ''Manifest''. With essays by Graham, Rebecca Bengal, RaMell Ross, and Ian Penman. Published in conjunction with an exhibition at the

International Center of Photography The International Center of Photography (ICP), at 79 Essex Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, consists of a museum for photography and visual culture and a school offering an array of educational courses and programming. ...

, New York, 2021.

Exhibitions

Solo and group exhibitions

* ''Troubled Land''; within ''The New British Document'' (also with

Keith Arnatt Keith Arnatt (1930–2008) was a British conceptual artist. As well as conceptual art his work is sometimes discussed in relation to land art, minimalism, and photography. He lived and worked in London, Liverpool, Yorkshire and Monmouthshire. Lif ...

, John Davies,

Peter Fraser Peter Fraser (; 28 August 1884 – 12 December 1950) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 24th prime minister of New Zealand from 27 March 1940 until 13 December 1949. Considered a major figure in the history of the New Zealand La ...

and Martin Parr, curated by Sally Eauclaire),

Museum of Contemporary Photography The Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP) was founded in 1976 by Columbia College Chicago as the successor to the Chicago Center for Contemporary Photography. The museum houses a permanent collection as well as the Midwest Photographers Projec ...

, Columbia College Chicago, May–June 1986. * ''Conflits en Irlande du Nord,''

Rencontres d'Arles The Rencontres d’Arles (formerly called ''Rencontres internationales de la photographie d’Arles'') is an annual summer photography festival founded in 1970 by the Arles photographer Lucien Clergue, the writer Michel Tournier and the historia ...

, Arles, France, 1987. * ''New Europe,''

, 1993. * ''Empty Heaven,''

Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg The Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg is an art museum in central Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, opened 1994. It presents modern and contemporary art and is financed by the ''Kunststiftung Volkswagen.'' It takes up aspects of the industrial city of Wolfsburg, whic ...

, 1995. * ''Hypermetropia,''

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

, London, 1996. * ''End of an Age,'' Portfolio Gallery, Edinburgh, 1998; Galerie Bob Van Orsouw, Zurich, 1998. * ''Cruel and Tender,'' Tate, London, 2003. Group survey exhibition of 20th century photography. * ''American Night,'' Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London, 2003; Power House, Memphis, TN, 2003; PS1, New York, 2003. * ''American Pictures,''

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

, New York City, 2004. * ''American Night,'' Rencontres d'Arles, Arles, France, 2006; La Fábrica, Madrid, 2006. * ''Click Double Click, The Documentary Factor,'' Haus der Kunst, Munich, 2006;

Centre for Fine Arts The Centre for Fine Arts (french: Palais des Beaux-Arts, nl, Paleis voor Schone Kunsten) is a multi-purpose cultural venue in Brussels, Belgium. It is often referred to as BOZAR (a homophone of ''Beaux-arts'') in French or PSK in Dutch. The b ...

, Brussels, 2006 * ''A Shimmer of Possibility,'' La Fábrica, Madrid, 2008;

, New York City, 2009. * ''Paul Graham. Photographs 1981–2006,''

, Essen, Germany, 2009;

, Hamburg, Germany, 2010;

, London, 2011. *''The Whiteness of the Whale,'' Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco, August 2015 – February 2016; and toured to the

, Atlanta; Bombas Gens in Valencia; and

, France.

Exhibitions curated by Graham

*''But Still, it Turns,''

, New York, 2021. Includes work by

, Curran Hatleberg, Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa, Richard Choi,

, Kristine Potter, and Emanuele Bruti and Piergiorgio Casotti.

Awards

*1983:

Winston Churchill Memorial Trusts Winston Churchill Memorial Trusts (WCMT) are three independent but related living memorials to Sir Winston Churchill, based in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. They exist for the purpose of administering Churchill Fellowships, a ...

fellowship. *1988: W. Eugene Smith Grant from the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund. *2009:

. *2009: Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society *2010: Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. *2011: Best photographic book of the past 15 years for ''Shimmer of Possibility,'' awarded by

as a precursor to the

Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards The Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards is a yearly photography book award that is given jointly by Paris Photo and Aperture Foundation. It is announced at the Paris Photo fair and was established in 2012. The categories are First P ...

, presented in ''The PhotoBook Review''. *2012: Hasselblad Award from the

, Gothenburg, Sweden.

Collections

Graham's work is held in the following public collections:

References

External links

*
Paul Graham biography and selected works at carlier , gebauer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Graham, Paul 1956 births Living people 20th-century British photographers Photography in Japan Social documentary photographers English contemporary artists 21st-century British photographers