' A1 - The Great North Road ' was Paul Graham's first book, published in 1983 . Although the UK had a vibrant photography scene at the time, there were only a handful of monographs (Chris Killip and Martin Parr each had one) and no interested publishers or distributors willing to bet on the photobook format. so Graham had to self-publish A1.
As the first color photobook, it had a surprising impact on British photography. Bridging the tradition of social documentary with a fresh approach to new colour, ' A1 - The Great North Road ' was transformative in photography in the UK and paved the way for a new generation of British color photographers to emerge, from Nick Waplington to Anna Fox, Richard Billingham or Tom Wood.
Spanning the length of England and as far as Edinburgh, Graham repeatedly traveled along the "Great Northern Highway" with a large-format camera to record the people, buildings and landscape of early 1980s Britain. Now 40 years old, this book is both an art object and a historical document from the years of Margaret Thatcher's rule and the decline of the UK industry.
Linen hardcover with inserted image 32.2 x 24.3cm, 96 pages First edition, second printing
