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| Paul Graham, New Orleans (Cherries on sidewalk), from the series a shimmer of possibility, 2006 |
Pier 24 Photography presents The Whiteness of the Whale, a solo exhibition by British photographer Paul Graham (b. 1956) who lives and works in New York City. For the first time, this exhibition brings together three bodies of work made in the United States between 1998 and 2011, American Night (1998–2002), a shimmer of possibility (2004–06), and The Present (2009–11). The Whiteness of the Whale features nearly sixty works, ranging from singular large-scale photographs to sequences of over twenty images. This exhibition marks Pier 24 Photography’s first single-artist presentation and the only time a shimmer of possibility has been presented in its entirety. Graham’s three bodies of work from this period operate as an informal trilogy, linked not only by common subject matter, but also by underlying issues such as racial and social inequality, the texture of everyday life, and the nature of sight, perception, and photography itself.
British publisher MACK have produced a bookwork to support the Pier 24 show, or does the show support the book? They say this:
The Whiteness of the Whale brings together Paul Graham’s three bodies of American photographs: American Night, a shimmer of possibility and The Present,
made from 1998 to 2011. These 3 remarkable photographic series reflect
upon the social fabric of contemporary America, whilst trying to find
something closer to the experience of being and seeing in the world
today.
American Night (2003) examines the social fracture of America – the great divide between have and have-not rendered through the dichotomy of light and darkness, presence and absence. The images oscillate between high-key near invisible photographs in bright light, and the antithesis – deeply saturated colour images of freshly minted homes glowing under California’s blue skies.
a shimmer of possibility (2007), is an American epic of the small and incidental. Originally published as twelve photographic visions of everyday life, the stuttering sequences form a kind of 'filmic haiku', revealing the flow of life found in quotidian America, where we share moments with people waiting for a bus, cutting the grass, or smoking a cigarette. a shimmer of possibility was winner of the 2011 Paris Photo Book Prize for the most significant Photobook of the past 15 years.
The Present (2011) taken in the streets of New York, and unfolds two images of the same scene separated only by the briefest fraction of time. Here the present is revealed to be a fleeting and provisional alignment, glimpsed as part of an ever flowing continuum of life: before/after, coming/going, either/or.
The catalogue is printed in wide gamut inks on natural white paper, and coincides with the exhibition at Pier 24, San Francisco. It includes newly commissioned texts by David Chandler and Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa.
Published in collaboration with Pier 24, San Francisco. 240 pages, 24 cm x 30.5 cm, hardback book with tipped in image, housed in a printed mailing box, Publication date: August 2015. €65.00 £50.00 $75.00
You can order The Whiteness of the Whale from MACK HERE.
American Night (2003) examines the social fracture of America – the great divide between have and have-not rendered through the dichotomy of light and darkness, presence and absence. The images oscillate between high-key near invisible photographs in bright light, and the antithesis – deeply saturated colour images of freshly minted homes glowing under California’s blue skies.
a shimmer of possibility (2007), is an American epic of the small and incidental. Originally published as twelve photographic visions of everyday life, the stuttering sequences form a kind of 'filmic haiku', revealing the flow of life found in quotidian America, where we share moments with people waiting for a bus, cutting the grass, or smoking a cigarette. a shimmer of possibility was winner of the 2011 Paris Photo Book Prize for the most significant Photobook of the past 15 years.
The Present (2011) taken in the streets of New York, and unfolds two images of the same scene separated only by the briefest fraction of time. Here the present is revealed to be a fleeting and provisional alignment, glimpsed as part of an ever flowing continuum of life: before/after, coming/going, either/or.
The catalogue is printed in wide gamut inks on natural white paper, and coincides with the exhibition at Pier 24, San Francisco. It includes newly commissioned texts by David Chandler and Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa.
Published in collaboration with Pier 24, San Francisco. 240 pages, 24 cm x 30.5 cm, hardback book with tipped in image, housed in a printed mailing box, Publication date: August 2015. €65.00 £50.00 $75.00
You can order The Whiteness of the Whale from MACK HERE.
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