Mick Hartley

Photographer Paul Graham travelled up and down the A1 in the early 1980s, armed with a large-format camera. The resulting book, A1 – The Great North Road, set the trend as the first colour photography book in the UK.

Graham had to self-publish A1, but as the first colour book, it had a startling impact on British photography. Uniting the tradition of social documentary with the fresh approach of new colour, A1 – The Great North Road was transformative on photography in the UK and paved the way for a new generation of British colour photographers to emerge, from Nick Waplington to Anna Fox, Richard Billingham to Tom Wood.

It's now set to be re-published by MACK, along with an exhibition at the Huxley-Parlour Gallery in London at the end of the month.

The Great North Road used to be the main route north, from London to Edinburgh, but after the M1 opened in 1959 it started to lose traffic and became a bit of a backwater – underused and in decline. I remember it well – we used it a lot at the time, driving up to Sheffield where my parents lived. It made a welcome change from the boredom and monotony of the M1, even if the journey took longer. So this is only too familiar:

[Photos © Paul Graham]