{"product_id":"ken-graves-was-a-genius-ken-graves","title":"Ken Graves Was a Genius. Ken Graves","description":"\u003cp class=\"cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\"\u003eAfter studying photography at the San Francisco Art Institute, Ken Graves turned his camera on the America around him, spending the 1960s and 70s finding uncanny moments that often elicit a chuckle. Each photograph is a one-liner——comic, precisely framed, and quietly devastating. A master of the decisive moment, Graves pushed further: people caught mid-air, two sets of action unfolding simultaneously in foreground and background, gestures and body language deployed like props in a production his subjects never quite knew they were part of. The photographic plane becomes a stage, its unsuspecting subjects his actors——piecing together different elements within a single frame with the instincts of a collagist, a medium he would take up formally later in his career. What emerges are images that reveal more about America's true nature than words ever could: a landscape and its people that are funny, menacing, awkward, aggressive, joyful, and dubious——all at once. Together these early images form a collective portrait of a nation whose disillusionment with its own mythology was just beginning to show.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\"\u003eGraves is one of the unsung photographers of his generation. Lee Friedlander and Garry Winogrand achieved lasting recognition working in a broadly similar register, but Graves cast a shorter shadow——despite producing work no less striking or memorable. This is the third book of his work published by TBW Books, and his most essential.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a_GcMg font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none\"\u003eEmily Keegin contributes an afterword contextualizing Graves within the era in which he began working.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TBW","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67663032385845,"sku":"978-1-942953-86-9","price":60.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0739\/4289\/2853\/files\/TBW_Summer260376.webp?v=1791560263","url":"https:\/\/researchdevstore.myshopify.com\/products\/ken-graves-was-a-genius-ken-graves","provider":"Research \u0026 Development Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}