INTERVIEW Paul Graham, San Francisco (Woman in Paul Graham Silver Jacket), from the series a shimmer of By Lyle Rexer possibility, 2006. © Paul Graham. Courtesy Pace and Pace/MacGill Gallery

Pier 24 Photography, the San Francisco exhibi- of yourself and your society. Of course, in LR: It seems to me that your style changed LR: Something in nothing – that resonates tion space, is presenting British photographer America whiteness is also a metaphor. somewhat when you began shooting a shim- for me because so many of my students are Paul Graham’s show The Whiteness of the mer of possibility. With The Great North Road, seeking the same thing. It’s the shimmer you Whale, on view through February 29, 2016. LR: It does raise the question for me of why 1981-82, you could be seen as a sociologist talk about, that thing that the camera hovers It provides an overview of his American work, you took up residence here, like Jonah in the of Thatcher England and its discontents. In the around, the experience you feel and know but including the first complete presentation ofa belly of the whale. United States, your work seems more open- can’t fully articulate; a testament to being. shimmer of possibility, and its 160 photographs ended, even puzzling sometimes. constitute the most telling view of this country PG: A variety of reasons, but the main one PG: It’s that point when things, time, and cir- since Robert Frank’s The Americans. was I felt that photography wasn’t valued PG: I suppose it is more open-ended. In Eng- cumstance come together, rich with cognitive very highly in England. I remember in the land there is no such thing as the infinite high- potential. It’s reality looked at directly, with a Lyle Rexer: I’m intrigued by the title of the ex- early 1980s seeing a review of a Garry way, the Kerouacian open road, but I wasn’t kind of amazement. It’s often hard to say what hibition, a reference to Moby Dick, especially Winogrand show in in the same sense as Robert Frank. the pictures are actually about because there is to Ahab’s mad quest. that covered two-thirds of a page. And the I wasn’t on a quest for freedom or for the es- a provisional-ness to them. They refuse to kow- other third was devoted to a review of Boris sential truth about America. It’s more that I tow to a narrative line, never crippling potential Paul Graham: I like to think it points the view- Mikhailov. The level of presumed knowledge was wandering randomly through suburban readings. Rather, they hint at a way of seeing, er in a direction. I don’t want to pin down what about photography was so high I couldn’t America, looking to find something in nothing. instruct us on how to perceive; that is the source that direction is, except to say it can be thought quite believe it. I thought, this is where I At one point I found myself laughing because I of their consultability. I am pleased that young of as a metaphor for the United States in action belong. was in a car park somewhere, and I realized I people are photographing nothing again. – for instance, the pursuit of one thing to the was in the same spot as I was 25 years earlier, exclusion of all others, even to the destruction in Yorkshire, alone in a car park.

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