GRAHAM, Paul - A Shimmer of Possibility

Background information

"'A Shimmer of Possibility' by British photographer Paul GRAHAM is regarded as one of the defining photography books of the 21st century. Awarded the Paris Photo-Aperture Prize for the most significant photobook published in the past 15 years, the original 12 volume set sold out in 10 weeks, and has been out of print since. "The photo book set 'A Shimmer of Possibility' is in volume 3 of the book series' The Photobook. A History 'by Martin PARR and Gerry BADGER.

Content

'A Shimmer of Possibility' by Paul GRAHAM comprises 12 individual books, each volume a photographic short story of everyday life in today’s America. Modest sequences of images, such as a man smoking a cigarette while waiting for a bus in Las Vegas, or a woman collecting her mail from a mailbox in leafy New England, reflect the poetic ebb and flow of life. Now and then, the quiet narrative slides unexpectedly into the sublime: as a man mows a large green expanse, the sunlight breaks through clouds to illuminate a curtain of glowing raindrops. These filmic haikus avoid the forceful summation we usually find in photography, shunning a tidy packaging of the world into perfect images, to speak instead about the unexamined depths of quotidian life.
Whilst the 12 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 publication 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." (© Mack books)

In the press

"When Paul GRAHAM first published 'a shimmer of possibility' he radically redefined the photobook, distilling his epic travels across America into twelve distinct volumes (...) Viewed afresh in a new edition, the brief encounters by Paul GRAHAM are resonant and full of anticipation." (© Rebecca BENGAL, in: Bookforum, 2018)
"The 12-volume set of 'a shimmer of possibility' is a rare sight for anyone, if they can get their hands on it. The twelve thin books each tell their own stories from all over America, showing glimpses but never more. GRAHAM’s use of design and sequence are superb, and make these books a definitive mark in photobook history." (© Paul CASSIDY, in: 'The Best Photobooks About America', TIME.com, 2016)

Additional information

Originally released in 2007 as a set of 12 single volumes in different colors, 2009 came a paperback issue before the publisher again re-published 'A Shimmer of Possibilty' as a 12-book-set in purple in 2018)

About the British photographer, Paul GRAHAM (b.1956)

Photo books by and on the work of Paul GRAHAM