Paul Graham - Photographer
Paul Graham is an English fine-art photographer who was born in 1956. His work has been widely exhibited, collected, and published internationally. He has been awarded many significant photographic achievements, including the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography in 2012.
Recently, one of his most acclaimed bodies of work a shimmer of possibility, found itself a home in The Douglas Hyde Gallery in Trinity College, Dublin, where myself and fellow classmates paid a visit.
The exhibition was split over two levels and began with a single isolated, image of bright red cherries, massacred across the pavement. This visual entices us to think and interpret. Why are the cherries there? What do they mean? Who left them there? What happened to them? It is a story with no beginning and no end. This stand-alone image readies our mind for the possibilities ahead. Graham forces us to take a breath before descending the staircase and viewing the other chapters in his story.
After this we find another tale from New Orleans, this time a series. A man in a wheelchair, struggling to navigate whilst time and space continues on up above him. The juxtaposition of the man with such limited independence and mobility with the power and unpredictability of the ominous storm clouds above show us how, in Paul Graham’s America, those who are marginalized by society, those who are in any way different, are often neglected and left to fend for themselves completely as the rest of the world continues to spin on with or without them.
The next chapter features an African American man, breaking a sweat, cutting grass. The man is mowing back and forth, doing his job but ultimately getting nowhere. Again, this series conveys a sense of isolation and alienation - a harsh reality in Graham’s America. It’s interesting to see the image of the workman’s van break up the ‘flow’ of the series.
I believe Graham intended the whole exhibition to be read as a story, each series as a
Recently, one of his most acclaimed bodies of work a shimmer of possibility, found itself a home in The Douglas Hyde Gallery in Trinity College, Dublin, where myself and fellow classmates paid a visit.
The exhibition was split over two levels and began with a single isolated, image of bright red cherries, massacred across the pavement. This visual entices us to think and interpret. Why are the cherries there? What do they mean? Who left them there? What happened to them? It is a story with no beginning and no end. This stand-alone image readies our mind for the possibilities ahead. Graham forces us to take a breath before descending the staircase and viewing the other chapters in his story.
After this we find another tale from New Orleans, this time a series. A man in a wheelchair, struggling to navigate whilst time and space continues on up above him. The juxtaposition of the man with such limited independence and mobility with the power and unpredictability of the ominous storm clouds above show us how, in Paul Graham’s America, those who are marginalized by society, those who are in any way different, are often neglected and left to fend for themselves completely as the rest of the world continues to spin on with or without them.
The next chapter features an African American man, breaking a sweat, cutting grass. The man is mowing back and forth, doing his job but ultimately getting nowhere. Again, this series conveys a sense of isolation and alienation - a harsh reality in Graham’s America. It’s interesting to see the image of the workman’s van break up the ‘flow’ of the series.
I believe Graham intended the whole exhibition to be read as a story, each series as a