Paul Graham

[Arthurwg]

I'm told that Paul Graham, who is currently having a show at ICP in New York, is one of the most important photographers of the day. What do you think?

 

[Don_ih]

I guess if you're having a noteworthy show in New York, you're "important". It's hard to say, though, when you look at his photos. While I like street photography, his seems a bit .... directionless?

What makes a photographer important, though?

 

[warden]

I'm told that Paul Graham, who is currently having a show at ICP in New York, is one of the most important photographers of the day. What do you think?

You first.

 

[pbromaghin]

What do you think?

I'll bite.

Meh.

The "Post your street photography here" thread has any number of people who run circles around this guy.

 

[Raghu Kuvempunagar]

"In images both sensitive and subtly political, he makes tangible the insignificant traces of ″the spirit of the times″ we do not normally see."

https://www.hasselbladfoundation.org/wp/paul-graham-2/

 

[Arthurwg]

You first.

I came across his "importance" in a comparison with Robert Frank. I don't think so.

 

[MattKing]

Well, just like Robert Frank, he has two given names .

 

[warden]

I came across his "importance" in a comparison with Robert Frank. I don't think so.

I wouldn't put him in the same company as Frank either, but he's not exactly chopped liver. ;-)

 

[juan]

Watching Blowup, I learned photographic importance is measured in money, sports cars, and hot, tall women.

 

[Lachlan Young]

Paul Graham's 'A1' and 'Beyond Caring' are hugely important books - and in their own ways as important as Chris Killip's and Martin Parr's work of the same era.

Graham also has written a few pieces about photography - in particular 'The Unreasonable Apple' (you'll need to scroll down to it) which is well worth taking the time to read and digest. The line, "...reminds me of the parable of an isolated community who grew up eating potatoes all their life, and when present with an apple, thought it unreasonable and useless, because it didn't taste like a potato" is worth highlighting - while directed at curators who struggle with photography that works from the idioms of documentary, it could equally apply to those who don't want to engage with photography that forces them to think/ confront their firmly held assumptions.

 

[Arthurwg]

Watching Blowup, I learned photographic importance is measured in money, sports cars, and hot, tall women.

Oh yes, I remember. Veruschka.

 

[logan2z]

Well, just like Robert Frank, he has two given names .

David Alan Harvey has them both beat :ducking:

 

[warden]

David Alan Harvey has them both beat :ducking:

LOL!

 

[Arthurwg]

Paul Graham's 'A1' and 'Beyond Caring' are hugely important books - and in their own ways as important as Chris Killip's and Martin Parr's work of the same era.

Graham also has written a few pieces about photography - in particular 'The Unreasonable Apple' (you'll need to scroll down to it) which is well worth taking the time to read and digest. The line, "...reminds me of the parable of an isolated community who grew up eating potatoes all their life, and when present with an apple, thought it unreasonable and useless, because it didn't taste like a potato" is worth highlighting - while directed at curators who struggle with photography that works from the idioms of documentary, it could equally apply to those who don't want to engage with photography that forces them to think/ confront their firmly held assumptions.

I read the piece you mention and can appreciate it. But what about the pictures? I've only seen a handful but they leave me cold. For some reason I don't need them.

 

[Lachlan Young]

I read the piece you mention and can appreciate it. But what about the pictures? I've only seen a handful but they leave me cold. For some reason I don't need them.

Much of his best work has tended to be in book form - which makes it challenging to view online. You don't have to like the work necessarily, but his early work was hugely important in creating a space for colour photography at the intersection of 'documentary' and art - it also provides a linkage between the work that Parr and Killip (for example) were producing in that period. And I would argue that his work has steadily become more aesthetically dissipated since he shifted to digital image making - there is going to be an aesthetic reckoning at some point with just how bad so much image-making of some major names became when they shifted to digital - it's rather sobering to consider that in some cases, the qualitative aesthetic values of their work owed more to Kodak/ Agfa/ Fuji etc's colour science than to any of their own supposed abilities with colour...

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

Well, as the saying goes - De gustibus non est disputandum

I find it hard to even go so far as "meh."

In this genre of photography my tastes run to Walker Evans

 

[Don_ih]

And I would argue that his work has steadily become more aesthetically dissipated since he shifted to digital image making

I looked through the available images on his website and the ones from older series do look better than the newer ones. More importantly, the older ones show some consideration for composition and seem to have some weight - and do look documentary. The new ones look almost random - not documenting anything.
But I'll certainly take your word about him - I didn't even know who he was prior to yesterday.

 

[perkeleellinen]

Mack Books are reprinting his early works. I have 'A1' and I've got 'Beyond Caring' on pre-order.

I like his early works a lot. I think his work came to prominence because he was an early adopter of colour in UK documentary photography.

 

[Ian Grant]

Paul Graham's 'A1' and 'Beyond Caring' are hugely important books - and in their own ways as important as Chris Killip's and Martin Parr's work of the same era.

Graham also has written a few pieces about photography - in particular 'The Unreasonable Apple' (you'll need to scroll down to it) which is well worth taking the time to read and digest. The line, "...reminds me of the parable of an isolated community who grew up eating potatoes all their life, and when present with an apple, thought it unreasonable and useless, because it didn't taste like a potato" is worth highlighting - while directed at curators who struggle with photography that works from the idioms of documentary, it could equally apply to those who don't want to engage with photography that forces them to think/ confront their firmly held assumptions.

I have to agree that Paul Graham is equally important as Chris Killip and Martin Parr, all come out of a more uniquely British tradition begun by people like John Bulmer, Roger Mayne, Don McCullin, Phillip Jones Griffith, Ian berry, Tony Ray Jones etc.

Paul Graham's A1 - the Great North Road was of particular importance at a time when British publishers struggled to get book deals, so he self published successfully and paved the way for other photographers.

Ian

 

[Arthurwg]

I sometimes wonder if it's a generational thing. Older folks may have trouble with what is apparently a new sensibility. I'll be traveling to NYC soon and hope to see the ICP show for myself.

 

[Don_ih]

I sometimes wonder if it's a generational thing. Older folks may have trouble with what is apparently a new sensibility. I'll be traveling to NYC soon and hope to see the ICP show for myself.

But the guy's earlier work is from the 1980s - it starts 40 full years ago. Does that count as new? Or do you just mean his newer work?

 

[Arthurwg]

But the guy's earlier work is from the 1980s - it starts 40 full years ago. Does that count as new? Or do you just mean his newer work?

I don't really know. Probably a good question. But when I think of the photography that I have learned to love, PG's work seems to be a departure that I don't fully comprehend or find very attractive or interesting. . I'll tell you more after I've seen the show.

 

[ParkerSmithPhoto]

"In images both sensitive and subtly political, he makes tangible the insignificant traces of ″the spirit of the times″ we do not normally see."

https://www.hasselbladfoundation.org/wp/paul-graham-2/

I have a hard time imagining I could like any of those images, no matter how they were printed or what size. It just looks like iPhone photography.

Maybe this guy was brilliant 40 years ago. Most photographers have career peaks, but very few artists are great for 40+ years. Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, the Westons, HCB, you run out of names very quickly.

 

[CMoore]

I have a hard time imagining I could like any of those images, no matter how they were printed or what size. It just looks like iPhone photography.

I have a similar reaction to his photos, although i do not think the camera used has much to do with anything.
There are others that strike the same emotion in me.....Martin Parr for example. I simply do not enjoy looking at (most of) his pictures.
Be it photography, music, painting, clothing, etc etc etc...........when people are this popular, i guess i just assume there is something "I Do Not Get" about their Art/Work.

I think Frank Sinatra had a mediocre voice and that Billie Holiday had a voice bordering on annoying.
What can you say...no right or wrong...just the way it falls out sometimes.

 

[Raghu Kuvempunagar]

I have a hard time imagining I could like any of those images, no matter how they were printed or what size. It just looks like iPhone photography.

Maybe this guy was brilliant 40 years ago. Most photographers have career peaks, but very few artists are great for 40+ years. Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, the Westons, HCB, you run out of names very quickly.

Paul Graham's photographs, when seen individually, don't cut much of an impression. They're not always hinged on the decisive moment like Cartier-Bresson. Most of his work was done in the form of photobooks where the sequencing of the photographs and the socio-political context of the photographs play a big role in creating the photographic experience. Taken out of the sequence and not seen in the light of the specific socio-political context, individual pictures might not always stand out. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.