Thursday, March 8, 2012

Paul Graham - 2012 Hasselblad Award Winner


The Hasselblad Foundation is pleased to announce British photographer Paul Graham as the recipient of the 2012 Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography for SEK 1,000,000 (approximately GBP 95,000, US$150,000), The award ceremony will take place in London on March 8, 2012. An exhibition of his work, Paul Graham – 2012 Hasselblad Award Winner will open on October 26, 2012 at the Hasselblad Center at the Gothenburg Museum of Art, Sweden, in connection with which, one or more seminars will be arranged with the award winner.
The Foundation’s citation regarding the decision to award the 2012 prize to Paul Graham is as follows:
Paul Graham is one of the most brilliant photographers of his generation. During the course of his nearly 40-year career, he has presented an extremely focused body of work, at once perfectly coherent and never monotonous. In images both sensitive and subtly political, he makes tangible the insignificant traces of the spirit of the times we do not normally see. With his keen awareness of the photographic medium, he has constantly developed innovative forms of working with all aspects of photography. This makes him a profound force for renewal of the deep photographic tradition of engagement with the world.

Sean O'Hagan the guardian's photography writer wrote in yesterday's issue, a piece about Paul's win. You can read it HERE.

O'Hagan reminds readers about Graham's comment about his practice, where he said, "It has steadily become less important to me that the photographs are about something in the most obvious way. I am interested in more elusive and nebulous subject matter. The photography I most respect pulls something out of the ether of nothingness." 

We should all tattoo that last sentence on the back of one hand. Both hands even!

And the Paul Graham Archive is well worth a look HERE.


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