Career

In the early 1990s, after moving to Providence, Rhode Island, he started producing formally complex, often dark depictions of the urban, suburban, and industrial landscape. This work, which grew into the project titled "Wilderness" continued to evolve when Raphaelson moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1995. The work went unnoticed by the larger photography art world until it was discovered by Sandra Phillips of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Artist

lieutenant later caught the attention of former Museum of Modern Art curator John Szarkowski.

Commercial galleries, on the other hand, struggled to find a place for the work, which blurs many lines between classic formal modernism, the politically aware "New Topographics" photography from the 1970s, highly crafted "fine art" photography, and more contemporary explorations of the banal and ironic. Raphaelson"s grandfather was the playwright and screenwriter Samson Raphaelson, who practiced photography as an amateur in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Raphaelson"s ongoing projects include explorations in color, digital carbon pigment printing, and hand-made artist"s books Lost Spaces, Foundation Gardens (2005 to present): Color work exploring the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, with forays into East Williamsburg, Manhattan the Brooklyn industrial waterfront.

Wilderness (1994-2003): Black and white large format urban landscape work.

Southwest (1988 to present): An ongoing exploration of the old and new in southern Colorado, including Colorado Springs, the Pueblo area, the San Luis Valley, central and southern Utah, and Arizona. Chicago (1988-1990): Selections from oldest work, including small camera cityscapes and street pictures. Brooklyn Utopias?, group exhibit, Brooklyn Historical Society, 2009 - 2010

Lost Spaces, Foundation Gardens, individual exhibit, Brooklyn Public Library, 2009

Ten Years Under The Manhattan Bridge, individual exhibit, Brooklyn Public Library, 2008

Brooklynature, juried exhibit, Saint Joseph"s College, Brooklyn, 2007

Environment: Place, juried exhibit, Photomedia Center.org, 2005

Emotional Distance, group exhibit, Gallery Sink, Denver, 2002

Office The Highway, group exhibit, Gallery Sink, Denver, 2001

Paul Raphaelson, individual exhibit, Monographs, Limited., New York, 2000

Urban Interpretations, group exhibit, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, 1999

Office the Highway, group exhibit, David Floria Gallery, Aspen, Colorado, 1996

Wilderness, individual exhibit, Gallery One, Providence, 1995

Office the Highway, group exhibit, Robin Rule Modern and Contemporary, Denver, 1995

Wilderness, individual exhibit, Cranston Public Library, Rhode Island, 1995

Endangered Providence, group exhibit, Gallery One, Providence, 1995

Chicago, individual exhibit, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, 1990.