 The beauty of photography is its power to transport us. It could be that crumbling street of Paris as it was lost forever under the guise of progress. Perhaps it's the procession of chipped formica, strong builder's tea, and lurid paint colours of an early 1980s UK road trip. Or it could just be a world that only exists in the photographer's head, which is expressed as little echoes for us to enjoy. How's it, how's it? Today we'll discover three quite different photographers. And one of them helped to lay the groundwork for modern documentary photography and inspired the likes of Walker Evans. And one of them will give you a chance to experience the glamour that was travelling along an Arturo road in 1980s Britain, proof that even in that grey environment there was beauty to be found. And to help us shake off the dust and the grime from that road trip, we're going to bathe in some gloriously ethereal photography. Eugene Ager took up photography in the 1890s and he's best known for the photograph that he took in the streets of Paris and around the French countryside at the turn of the century, which was documenting the world as it was then. And by then, of course, that old world was already crumbling away. It was being replaced by the new. And of course, the looming war on the horizon would speed up that process. Ager was one of those photographers who when I was initially introduced to his photography at a textbook, I sort of looked and I went, what? Like, what's the point? And certainly why was that photograph deemed worthy enough to be included in a textbook and to be discussed? Like a lot of photography of this period, my gut feeling is that it's not so much the single image that itself is important, although of course, and definitely many wonderful photographs are in there, so single things. But it's more the idea of what they represent in the grander scheme of photography. Obviously at the time, photography was a fairly new art form and it's fascinating that it arrived on the scene just when the landscapes and cities of Europe, which had been, of course, barely touched really for centuries, were being lost brick by brick. And especially in Paris, which at the time was being radically reshaped so it could embrace the modern world. As I had the presence of mind and, of course, the technical and aesthetic wherewithal to photograph these things before they were gone. He, in fact, branded himself as the creator and purveyor of a collection of photographic views of all Paris. Now, this suggests that his motives weren't strictly altruistic and there was probably a looking of trying to make some money here. He was by no means the first photographer to document this kind of change or, you know, to even be what we would consider now to be like a photojournalist. And what's happened is the body of work that he created over his lifetime has served as a visual link between the old world and the new world. The original documentary photographers, if you want to call them that, they were kind of like too early. Their work is anchored in one time frame. Of course, too late and Ajay gets caught up in the rush of change and the schools like pictorialism and the photos to session when the modern world is already underway. So his timing was perfect that he had a foot in both of those camps. And of course, the fact that later on photographers like Walker Evans and Lee Freedlander would cite him as influential, has obviously cemented Ajay's reputation. So his photographs represent an idea that simply photographing something for the sake of just documenting it doesn't have to be clinical. These buildings that he photographed, these are neighborhoods, their homes, their workplaces, their schools, their shops. They are a community for the people who lived in them. These places had a soul and they had a life and that was being lost. So it was important to show not just the building to document the bricks and the mortar but to document the life that those buildings were surrounded by. When I was a young child in England we used to drive up to Scotland to go and visit my grandfather every so often. It's a long dreary drive and if you've had the pleasure and I use that word loosely of course, of driving in the UK then you're going to know how joyless it can be. Route 66, which motors west has a glamour and a glitz apparently to it. The A1 simply snakes its way up the spine of Britain from London to Edinburgh and it is choked with trucks. From 1981 to 1982 Paul Graham shared this road with those trucks documenting the people and the sights along the way. Now much like Asier this this is not really groundbreaking in itself but what I love about the photographs that Graham created are the way that the images both simultaneously are a reminder of how run down so many things felt in early 80s Britain but yet the photographs make it look almost pretty. I don't know pretty is quite the right word but there's something about the way that Graham has seen past those rays of ashtrays and the grubbiness and probably the smells too because if you've ever been in a truck stop when smoking used to be allowed in doors you're going to know what it smells like and a scene something fascinating that certainly deserves to be given some sort of positive word and he could have of course quite easily gone the other road and given into sort of the rough gritty graininess that seems to be all over a lot of photography from the UK then and in fact if I think about it the other person who brings some color to this weird world of this time is somebody like Martin Parr because these subjects in the photographs are familiar things from my childhood I was that's what initially drew me in to his photography you know my interest in the book that Graham created from these trips was more kind of nostalgia than anything else to begin with and I much like I'd imagine you know people who grew up in in America in the 60s and 70s would feel when they look at the photography of people like Stephen Shaw for example now in the road trip photography video that I created recently we talked about the idea of a linear narrative that you should look at photographs as a whole unit and of course this book is a great example I've shown you the images somewhat out of context here but the images in the book itself follow the physical journey from London all the way to Edinburgh it's a great device because of course you see the changing people the changing landscape the changing weather everything changes as you travel north but the road the road itself remains constant and of course when the road is the title of the book that's an excellent thing to do and of course throughout all of these photographs are these utterly utterly amazing compositions and they use such simple shapes and colours and and and seeing them printed makes such a difference to to your enjoyment this is a reminder that a story isn't just composed of the great elements but there's it can be so much more that can be added the subtleties and the nuances that help fill out and round out a story that can all be found when you look a little bit closer you know don't just stand back and and be the wide visual observer just get in there and and feel what can be added to that story and this is what Paul Graham does with his photography those those wonderful compositions balance out the damp reality and they make his photographs such an a pleasure to experience there are some photographers who benefit on on some level from studying their imagery and and reacting to it in a slightly well academic-y sort of way and then there of course there are other photographers whose work I find just lends itself to sitting back and letting it wash over you Sarah Moon is one such photographer there's a quality to her photography that reminds me of so many things now all of them are quite disparate and not really connected in ways that that initially seem to make sense I can feel the the fingerprints of Norman Parkinson the Bauhaus Edward Steichen and a pinch of Paul Cezanne now of course here look at me I'm now saying we shouldn't analyze the work and I'm trying to do just that I'm listing off all the things I think Sarah Moon has been inspired by you know trying to to see what makes her tick and of course it doesn't really matter what makes her tick what matters is what she's done with all of those inspirations and and melded it to her own vision to make these photographs her own and a quote Sarah Moon said that for her photography is pure fiction and that she doesn't believe that she's making any real defined statement instead she's expressing something an echo of the world maybe because statements like that make my job a lot easier because it's far more eloquent than ever anything I could come up with when talking about her photography and and there's a phrase in there the echo of the world which I love I love the idea that these photographs are echoes that each one has taken something we're sort of familiar with but slightly distorted it and changed it into something that we we that we recognize but isn't quite right finding one's own photography style is it's a never-ending journey and there's always going to be some sort of common vibe to it if you look at Sarah Moon's photography it changes to some there's these these lovely black and white there's the colors that the flower work it all changed but it also has her fingerprints all over it and of course that's that's what I think separates great photographers is they can they can change and adapt but still you know that there's images are there there's that saying that that looks are only skin deep but style is to the bone throughout the course of his career as a subject you know they changed through through necessity but he always photographed them with the same eye and the same type of camera he never changed from using the large plate cameras Paul Graham's photography has has expanded beyond the narrow confines of that crowded road on on a busy island that's not really fit for purpose but in yet his photography still teases out those beautiful color and shapes found in in the most unlikely places Sarah Moon much like her namesake waxes and wanes between approaches but all of them they feel delicate and and fragile like a little bubble that's just ready to burst at the slightest touch thank you ever so much for being here today and I hope that you have a fantastic weekend