“You have to be obsessive to find your passion and make photography work.”
Martin Parr wanted to become a photographer from the age of 14 and cites his grandfather, an amateur photographer, as an early influence. From the age of 16, there was never any serious pursuit of any other type of occupation. From 1970 to 1973 he studied photography at the Manchester Polytechnic (now Manchester Metropolitan University). In 2008 he was made an Honorary Doctor of Arts at Manchester Metropolitan University in recognition for his ongoing contribution to photography and to Manchester Metropolitan University’s School of Art.
Parr's approach to documentary photography is intimate, anthropological and satirical. Macro lenses, ring flash, high-saturation color film, and since it became an easier format to work in, digital photography, all allow him to put his subjects "under the microscope" in their own environment, giving them space to expose their lives and values in ways that often involve inadvertent humor. I find his best work to be that in which it is both fascinating and disgusting: like a social and cultural train wreck that you just can't look away from. The way that he is able to capture people as his leisure, without even necessarily disturbing them at all in the way that they act, is something that I am extremely jealous of. I am always scared that I will get in trouble somehow for photographing somebody that I do not have permission to do beforehand. Maybe this should be the next fear that I conquer…
Although his photographs always include people he only considers being a portrait photographer only 5% of his work. “A portrait is something you set up. Otherwise it is just a documentary picture, including people. Sometimes I ask permission because I photograph very close up. Sometimes I don’t.” I can picture him walking around, carrying his camera and just clicking away without ever putting his eye to the lens to see what the outcome might look like.
“You can see I’m not torn apart by guilt,” he says dryly, and he does indeed seem remarkably relaxed. “It amuses me that I have made a living from making a critique of a society that I am benefiting from.” The irony and humour, he says, are very English traits. “I regard myself as a quintessentially English photographer. Before you ask. Which most people do.”
Website:
http://www.martinparr.com/index1.html
Interview:
http://allphotographers.wordpress.com/2007/05/02/a-discussion-with-martin-parr/
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/cda08fb4-bbf5-11db-9cbc-0000779e2340.html
Gallery:
http://www.stephendaitergallery.com/dynamic/artist.asp?ArtistID=39
No comments:
Post a Comment