British photographer Paul Graham is shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography prize, which is currently on show at the Photographers’ Gallery, London (also shortlisted are Emily Jacir, Tod Papageorge and Taryn Simon). I’ve already done a post about his work (see A1- Great North Road here), but just wanted to highlight an article in today’s Guardian where he talks about his best shot.

Graham has been nominated for the prize for his publication a shimmer of possibility. Inspired by Chekhov’s short stories, it 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.

Pittsburgh (Man cutting grass) © Paul Graham/steidlMACK,  2004

I agree with the picture that he’s selected (Pittsburgh -Man cutting grass), which  is actually one of a sequence of photographs he took on the first evening of a two-and-a-half-year trip around America, starting in 2004. As he explains “I was just travelling with no particular purpose, taking photos along the way. This was in the car park in front of the motel where I was staying, and there was this guy cutting the grass of an entire huge field with a very loud old push-mower. He saw me and lifted his hand at one point, but he didn’t really care. So I kept on taking pictures, with the sun shining directly into the camera. (It’s lovely to do everything that Kodak tell you not to.)”

There is something quite magical about this image. It’s beautiful in the ordinaryness of the event, which has been captured as the rain falls and a burst of sunlight breaks through the clouds, illuminating the scene with sparks of colour and light. You can read Graham’s comments on the image here.

In her continuing series on photography books, you can read Liz Jobey’s review of Graham’s a shimmer of possiblity here. It is a very original publication and in my opinion the series of photographs works much better in book form than they do on the gallery wall.

The Deutsche Börse exhibition runs until the 12th April, with the winner announced on 25 March 2009.

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