ClaremontPhoto
Jon Claremont
I like Martin Parr's photos and wonder if other people here appreciate them also.
He photographs little slices of life and it's more documentary than street.
His subject is often British leisure time such as a fish and chips fast food shops.
His website is: http://www.martinparr.com
What do you think?
He photographs little slices of life and it's more documentary than street.
His subject is often British leisure time such as a fish and chips fast food shops.
His website is: http://www.martinparr.com
What do you think?
Last edited:
kbg32
neo-romanticist
I remember when Parr was first getting attention back in the late 70's early 80's. I liked his work back then as well. More typical street stuff if I remember.
markinlondon
Elmar user
I've long been a fan but many aren't. His early b&w work's pretty good too. I first noticed him via a Guardian weekend feature with text by the wonderful David Stafford on British food. It wasn't pretty!
ClaremontPhoto
Jon Claremont
Yes, he got me back into photography and inspired me to photograph the everyday.
OurManInTangier
An Undesirable
I've got alot of time for Martin's work. It isn't the easiest or, in modern parlance, most accessible style at first. When I first came across his work I wondered if it was a case of 'The Emperor's New Clothes,' however I quickly began to like this most direct of styles.
I think alot of what puts some people off is his sharply critical eye which often goes against the humanist values of traditional documentary photography. I personally believe we need at least one photographer willing and able to document our lives in such a way.
His eye for composition is also something I admire....and anyone that can photograph the things he does and places he does with a ringflash and not get punched has to be doing something right!!
...agree with ManGo about the website though!
I think alot of what puts some people off is his sharply critical eye which often goes against the humanist values of traditional documentary photography. I personally believe we need at least one photographer willing and able to document our lives in such a way.
His eye for composition is also something I admire....and anyone that can photograph the things he does and places he does with a ringflash and not get punched has to be doing something right!!
...agree with ManGo about the website though!
LazyHammock
Well-known
I'm a big fan of Martin Parr's. His style took a bit of getting used to though. I grew up in Huddersfield close to many of the communities he shot in his earlier days around Hebden Bridge so I feel a connection to some of his work. The study of the seaside resort is wonderful, very bold colors, really capturing a sense of the place and atmosphere.
I was recently looking at his postcard collections ("Boring postcards" and "Boring Postcards USA"), they are hilarious.
Nick
I was recently looking at his postcard collections ("Boring postcards" and "Boring Postcards USA"), they are hilarious.
Nick
Andrew Sowerby
Well-known
He's one of my favorites. I recently got a copy of The Last Resort. It's fantastic. I really like this photo:
iml
Well-known
He's a favourite of mine. I like the empathy he has with his subjects, despite the fact that he shows them very directly, with no attempt to sweeten their image (some people accuse him of looking down on his subjects, which I think is very wide of the mark). I also think he's one of the best colour photographers the art-documentary tradition has ever produced.
Ian
Ian
ClaremontPhoto
Jon Claremont
robert blu
quiet photographer
In the beginning, seen on magazines I did not like so much M.Parr's photos. But a few month ago there has been a great exhibition in Italy of his pictures, starting from the early works to the most recent. Viewing a large body of his work I undersood the way he's taking pictures of our daily life and how it is important . I am now much more impressed and I am a big fun of him. There is a lot to learn for an amateur, about composition and use of light. I like it.
robert
robert
Toby
On the alert
Most of The Last Resort and its contemporary work was shot on a Plaubel Makina 67 so it's all Rf photography!
a giant rat
Member
I prefer poetry to a plate of bacon.
telenous
Well-known
I like what he does. I think some of Parr's photography (perhaps esp. The Last Resort, I am not familiar with his earlier work) traces its influences back to English saucy seaside postcards and a particular brand of humour unique to the British: one which relishes to recount the human folly, not so much as a means to teach humility, but rather in order to liberate from the preconceived rules of savoir faire. It is also intimately connected with a very British kind of understanding of 'embarrasment', an intense and uncomfortable feeling of self-consciousness. Looking at his photos one feels compelled to look and at the same time embarassed for doing so, perhaps for being all-too-aware that one could easily be the subject of his photographs.
Striped deck chairs, pebble beaches, Brighton rock, fish and chips, all topped by the English summer (lets call it that) are the props of a familiar landscape, ever so slightly past the best-before date.
His photography does not have the optimism or empathy of the masters of the past but it resonates with a kind of understanding of human nature that is almost unavoidable and certainly typical of our cynical times.
PS. Having lived in Brighton for three years some time ago, I find much of his work intensely familiar and realistic. Sometimes the strangest of times are the best of times.
Striped deck chairs, pebble beaches, Brighton rock, fish and chips, all topped by the English summer (lets call it that) are the props of a familiar landscape, ever so slightly past the best-before date.
His photography does not have the optimism or empathy of the masters of the past but it resonates with a kind of understanding of human nature that is almost unavoidable and certainly typical of our cynical times.
PS. Having lived in Brighton for three years some time ago, I find much of his work intensely familiar and realistic. Sometimes the strangest of times are the best of times.
ClaremontPhoto
Jon Claremont
Oddly enough I prefer photos of nicely observed moments of time to poetry.
A good friend of mine published a book of poems which I found much more difficult to appreciate than a book of photos.
A good friend of mine published a book of poems which I found much more difficult to appreciate than a book of photos.
steamer
Well-known
Thanks for this, I didn't know Parr before, now he is a favorite, must save up for some of his books.
kuvvy
Well-known
I bought one of his books (and got it signed) a few years ago when he came to Bradford to speak and show his exhibition. A nice guy and his talk was very entertaining as well as interesting.
I can understand some people not liking his work as the colours do tend to be 'in your face'.
I like his work but prefer his B&W shots. maybe it's because I too know some of the places he shot. In fact I was in Hebden Bridge myself just a couple of weeks back.
I can understand some people not liking his work as the colours do tend to be 'in your face'.
I like his work but prefer his B&W shots. maybe it's because I too know some of the places he shot. In fact I was in Hebden Bridge myself just a couple of weeks back.
a giant rat
Member
"Oddly enough I prefer photos of nicely observed moments of time to poetry.
A good friend of mine published a book of poems which I found much more difficult to appreciate than a book of photos."
Me too, most poets are bad. But what I meant was, to me, his photos are devoid of poetry, soul, and beauty, and don't speak to me about what I want to be spoken to about and with - presumably he doesn't aim to do that, or ever could. To me he is the equivelent of the poet who says "I drove around with my pink iPod, ate a bacon sandwich, looked at shop windows, drew a moustache on a manniquin" and doesn't make me love life more. But maybe I am just a degenerate bacon and seaside world hater.
I do see he is very good at being himself and it has some historical value, and what I say is a little like saying my Argos catalogue is not Shakespeare.
A good friend of mine published a book of poems which I found much more difficult to appreciate than a book of photos."
Me too, most poets are bad. But what I meant was, to me, his photos are devoid of poetry, soul, and beauty, and don't speak to me about what I want to be spoken to about and with - presumably he doesn't aim to do that, or ever could. To me he is the equivelent of the poet who says "I drove around with my pink iPod, ate a bacon sandwich, looked at shop windows, drew a moustache on a manniquin" and doesn't make me love life more. But maybe I am just a degenerate bacon and seaside world hater.
I do see he is very good at being himself and it has some historical value, and what I say is a little like saying my Argos catalogue is not Shakespeare.