Martin Parr

I remember the New Colour Documentarists being quite the thing round about 1990-ish. I used to amuse myself by shooting parodies of their style.

But I do like the work of Parr, Fox et al. Not really my thing, obv, but it shone a light on seemingly mundane aspects of our lives and caused us to re-examine our attitudes. Some working in that style slipped into an easy misanthropy, holding up (badly exposed, colour-casted) photos of the freaks in the human zoo for ridicule, but I don't think Parr often strayed over that line.
 
Thank you Roger for the link to Martin's work and thank you j_j for the link to John's work too (always been a Shuttleworth fan.)

Having considered myself an admirer of much of Parr's work for a long time I was quite taken by one of the comments at the end of the article where the poster compares Martin with Mike Leigh, I think I have to agree with him there. I like his work, it challenges and confronts, it reflects much of modern life but boy, I feel a little snooty sometimes having viewed it, like I'm looking down my nose...and its a long nose
 
j j said:
Hurrah! Another chance to post this classic link: http://www.shuttleworths.co.uk/pages/noises.html Scroll down the list to Martin Parr documentary, BBC Radio 4, October 2002.

BTW, John Shuttleworth he is a fictional character who plays humorous songs and makes TV and radio shows.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this. Pick of the week, two down from the Parr link is also superb
 
Mr Parr is a very friendly chap. I actually met him a few weeks ago here in Tokyo. It was an event hosted by the Paul Smith fashion company. The event was similar to that Daido Moriyama one in London where you get to edit and select 10 photos by the photographer and then they bind all the pictures into a book. Of course, the books are autographed.

As I understand it, MP's entry into Magnum was controversial. But I think that they made the right decision in the end. His work is a different perspective to the world.
 
Quite touched by all the love for Mr Fellows. His (in comedy character) assessment of Parr reminds me of so many threads in RFF on so many subjects (including but far from only those about Parr).
 
I'm not trying to be controversial for the hell of it butI have never been able to "get" Martin Parr's work anymore than I'd have any of Tracy Emin or Damien Hirst's work in my house. It's not that I haven't tried to understand it or see some meaning in Martin Parr's photos but I struggle to differentiate his work from holiday snaps my family used to take.
 
I don't think that's a controversial view Paul. Lots of people think similarly (see any Parr thread on RFF, comments on the link from the OP or look at Parr's protracted route into Magnum).

I find Parr's work warm and gentle, some seem a little bemused by it and others find him patronising and cynical.

Maybe your family took very good holiday snaps?
 
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