Louisiana
Artist
Paul Graham
(English, born 1956)
Date2005; printed 2015
MediumInkjet print
DimensionsFramed (5 photographs): 26 1/2 × 141 3/8 × 1 1/2 inches (67.31 × 359.09 × 3.81 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Hall Family Foundation
Object number2016.75.87.1-5
SignedSigned on label attached to mount verso of panel a., lower right, in black marker: "Paul Graham"
Inscribednone
Markingsnone
Edition/State/Proofed. 1/5 + 2 A.P.s
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionThis sequence of photographs consists of five images and begins with a woman wearing a black and white track suit leaning on a green trash can near the edge of the road. She holds something small in her hands; there is a payphone and a gas station in the background. In subsequent images we see that she is using a coin to scratch a lottery ticket.Gallery LabelIn Paul Graham’s Louisiana, an open-ended story unfolds in five frames. Merging traditional practice with familiar film techniques, such as establishing shots and close-ups, Graham varies his vantage point as well as the final print sizes. He also favors unconventional installations. This variety gives the work a palpable visual cadence, calling attention to the subject—a woman scratching off a lottery ticket—as we consider the circumstances of her situation.
Louisiana is one of several photographic sequences of varying sizes and subjects, taken in the United States between 2004 and 2006, that constitute Graham’s body of work titled A Shimmer of Possibility.
The Hall Family Foundation, Kansas City, MO, 2016;
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2016.
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2016.
Copyright© Paul Graham
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