Paul Graham reports from Ireland

Paul Graham is currently in Ireland for his show at the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College Dublin. Paul reports that he is staying at Harvey's Point in Donegal. The place looks amazing...

Paul Graham, Harvey's Point

The Douglas Hyde Gallery has this to say about Paul's show.

Paul Graham, a shimmer of possibility
27 July - 19 September, 2012

In the summer of 2004, having moved to New York from London two years before, Paul Graham set out on the first of many trips around America to explore and photograph the country. This exhibition has been chosen by the artist from the resulting series of images, entitled a shimmer of possibility, which was first published in 2007 and has since been shown in many galleries and museums around the world, including MoMA, New York. Inspired by the short stories of Chekhov, each series (the original publication was made up of twelve slim books) includes a varying number of pictures and provides an attentive recollection of ordinary moments in the lives of some people Graham encountered on his travels. Including such subjects as a woman eating a take-out meal, a man cutting the grass, or people waiting at a bus-stop, they reflect aspects of ordinary American life that are infused, if you look carefully, with wonder and acceptance. As Graham has said, "Perhaps instead of standing at the river's edge scooping out water, it's better to be in the current itself, to watch how the river comes up to you, flows smoothly around your presence, and reforms on the other side as if you were never there."

Click here to view the publication which accompanies this exhibition.

Paul Graham has exhibited at many major museums and galleries around the world; earlier this year he won the prestigious international 'Hasselblad Award'. He is represented by Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London; The Pace Gallery, New York; and Pace MacGill, New York, amongst other galleries.

www.paulgrahamarchive.com

It was a pleasure to see an installation of Paul's shimmer work currently showing at MoMA in New York.  

Paul Graham - a shimmer of possibility, MoMA, NYC

I asked Paul what his plans are for new work. He told me kittens, flowers and babies. If anybody can make a combination like that work Paul can. Watch this space...

TIMEMACHINE Issue 6 now online

 
TIMEMACHINE is an online photography project edited by Lee Grant with contributions from Tom Williams and Sarah Rhodes.  Based in Australia, the quarterly editions aim to showcase recent and long-term projects by Australian and international photographers.

The photographers showcased in issue 6,  ATOMIC, are Jessie Boylan and Anthony Kelly, Guillame Herbaut, Barry W. Hughes, Miyako Ishiuchi, Alex James, Mark Klett, Robert Knoth and Michael Light.

TIME MACHINE says this: From documentary to conceptual imagery, the issue presents the message that nuclear energy is both invisible and insidious. Robert Knoth’s images of the Fukushima landscape are disconcerting in their beauty. He shows abandoned and overgrown rural settings, where the radiation-affected trees are starting to look like ancient forests. Guillame Herbaut's photographs have an eerie feeling as if he is photographing something ethereal, not tangible.  His poisoned forests are haunting as he shows them slowly die. Jess Boylan has contributed the essay about her trip out to Maralinga, in South Australia, looking at the site where the British tested 12 atomic bombs and made hundreds of smaller trials. She found the landscape layered with history and memories which made for an unsettling experience.
Tokyo-based photo consultant Yumi Goto is interviewed about her involvement in curating and editing images coming out of Fukushima. She shares some fascinating insights about digital publishing platforms, the life of images once they are taken and her interest in photographers who have an intimate relationship with their subject matter. Australian writer, Jess Scully also offers a thoughtful review of Robert Knoth and Antoinette de Jong's recently published book, Poppy.

You can see TIMEMACHINE issue 6 HERE

Self Publish, Be Happy and the DIY photobook phenomenon

 
The guardian reports on the rise and rise of London based Bruno Ceschel's Self Publish, Be Happy, an online hub for those of us involved in making, collecting, investigating the home-made photobook.

Guardian critic and writer Sean O'Hagan has this to say,

SPBH is the brainchild of writer and academic Bruno Ceschel. It was founded with the aim of "celebrating, studying and promoting self-published photobooks" via events, publications and the web. Not strictly a publisher, SPBH runs workshops that show photographers how to make and distribute their own books, posting the results on their daily blog and acting as a repository of knowledge.
"People send us the physical object," says Ceschel. "It could be a book or a stapled 'zine. Then we choose what we like and put it up on the site with all the details of how it was made, where it was printed, how much it costs and how to order a copy. It's all about thinking and creating outside the mainstream model of publishing, which most young photographers can't afford or simply don't want to get involved with."
Now SPBH are actually publishing a book of their own; or, to be more precise, three books bearing their imprint over the next year. The first is entitled AB&OC and features polaroids by Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, who gave Ceschel his first job back when they were creative directors of Benneton's controversial COLORS magazine. It's a rather beautiful little book: a random selection of polaroids, some of which were done as test shots for editorial shoots. There are portraits (Amy Winehouse, Paula Rego, Alsion Lapper, Adam by Oliver and Oliver by Adam) as well as still lifes (skulls, a leaf, a bird's nest) and a shot of Adam's right foot and Oliver's right hand. The print run is 250 and each comes with an original polaroid mounted on the cover: a picture of a hand, or hands, forming a word in sign language.

Read the full guardian story HERE and go to the Self Publish, Be Happy site HERE

The Photography Room, Queanbeyan NSW shows Tim Brook

 
The latest show at The Photography Room in Queanbeyan NSW features the work of Tim Brook in an exhibition called Observations.
I don't often post material from south of the equator because my interest lies in Europe and North America. However this Australian gallery, in a place not many may have ever heard of, is well worth putting on your radar. What they show seems always of substance and well worth a look. Tim Brook's show is no exception. The show runs 3 August until 2 September 2012. Here are some images. 
You can go to the gallery site HERE.

Henri Cartier-Bresson, an interview

This rare interview with the ever modest Henri Cartier-Bresson is well worth a look. You can go to it HERE.

John Gossage, THE CODE a new book from Harper's Books

Tokyo has been photographed more times than we have all had hot dinners. Does the world need any more photographs of Tokyo? The answer is yes if they happen to be made by John Gossage. In his new bookwork THE CODE, Gossage has done the seemingly imposssible with a series of photographs that are fresh, compelling, mysterious  and yet so simple.

THE CODE from Harper's Books, 2012. First Edition. Quarto. Limited to 1000 copies. Published on the occasion of Gossage's exhibition at Harper's Books, East Hampton, August 18 - October 1, 2012. A collection of color photographs shot in and around Tokyo. While Gossage's trademark celebration of the banal is certainly on display here, the photographer charts new territory with shots of Tokyo street scenes, skyscapes and tissue boxes. Fine in a fine jacket, sealed in shrink-wrap.

There is also a Deluxe Edition. Quarto. Limited to 26 SIGNED and numbered copies, and issued with an original color ink-jet print, 8 1/2 X 11 inches, SIGNED by Gossage and housed in a custom cloth folder and slipcase. Custom folder, gray slipcase.


You can see more on Harper's Books site HERE.

New York, first photographs

Now back in Auckland, from NYC heatwave to southern winter. Here are some preliminary images...