Vincent Borrelli, Bookseller

Paul Graham: A Shimmer of Possibility [IMPERFECT]

GRAHAM, Paul

Publisher: Göttingen, Germany: SteidlMack, 2007
Edition: 1st Edition
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: 3865214835
Condition: Near Fine / No dust jacket as issued
Item #: 113182

$1,500.00 save 60% $600.00

Specifics

SHIPPING NOTE: due to size and weight, additional shipping fees apply (calculated at checkout).

First edition, first printing. Hardcover. Twelve volumes, each with cloth-covered boards and title stamped in white on cover; no dust jacket as issued. Photographs by Paul Graham. The set encompasses the following titles Pittsburgh, 2004; New York & North Dakota, 2005; California, 2005-2006; Austin, Texas, 2006; Washington and South Broad, New Orleans, 2004-2006; Las Vegas & San Francisco, 2005; Everett Avenue, Chelsea, Boston 26th August 2006; Camarro, Louisiana, 2005; New England, 2006; Chicago, San Francisco, Minneapolis, New Orleans, 2005-2006; Louisiana, 2005; Texas & North Dakota, 2005. 376 total pages, with 167 four-color plates beautifully printed in Germany by Steidl. Each volume 12-3/4 x 9-5/8 inches. This first edition was limited to 1000 copies.

[Cited in Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, The Photobook: A History, Volume III. (London and New York: Phaidon, 2014)].

Condition

Near Fine in publisher's packaging (minor bumps to corners, not affecting text block).

Description

From the publisher: "Inspired by Chekhov's short stories, Paul Graham's a shimmer of possibility comprises 12 individual books, each volume a photographic short story of everyday life in today's America. Most of these books contain small sequences of images, such as a man smoking a cigarette while he waits for a bus in Las Vegas, or a walk down a street in Boston on an autumn afternoon. Often two, three or four sequences intertwine in a single book, like separate but related lives co-existing in suburban America. Sometimes the quiet narrative breaks unexpectedly into a sublime moment - while a couple carry their shopping home in Texas a small child dances with a plastic bag in a garden; as a man cuts the grass in Pittsburgh it begins to rain and the low sun breaks through to illuminate every raindrop. These filmic haikus avoid the forceful summation we usually find in photography, shunning any tidy packaging of the world into perfect images. Instead, life simply flows around and past us while we stand and stare, quietly astonished by its beauty and grace. Whilst the twelve books are all an identical size, they vary in length from just a single photograph, to 60 pages of images made at one street intersection. The radical form of this multi volume book embraces the unique nature of Graham's work, giving the flow of life precedence over conclusiveness, where nothing much happens, but nothing is foreclosed either, where everything shimmers with possibility."