Ken Graves and Eva Lipman, partners in both life and photography, began their collective practice after a chance meeting in 1986. Even though they had previously maintained their own personal practices, Graves and Lipman defined their partnership by the selfless and uncommon act of claiming artistic credit as one. The pair went on to photograph American social rituals imbedding themselves in proms, military ceremonies, football games, boxing matches, and more. Their resulting work holds sensitivity and intensity. Lipman reflects the intense sensuality was not just a reflection of the world around them but of their own relationship with one another. The two recent publications by TBW Books, Restraint and Desire and Derby culimate their lifelong partnership. Works by Graves and Lipman reside in the permenant collections of many renowned collections including the San Franscisco Museum of Modern Art and Smithsonian American Art Museum. Their work has been featured in New Yorker Magazine, British Journal of Photography, Washington Post, and Hyperallergic.
“In Art we were soul mates. We rejected the notion that photography had to be a solitary endeavor. Choosing to photograph as a single entity we shared artistic credit, blurring the lines of authorship. We were both teacher and student on a journey. Ken was the dreamer working from imagination, willing to sacrifice theme for a vision less subject driven. I remained faithful to the immediacy of events and people, searching for coherence and universals in the particular.” - Eva Lipman