Martin Parr

When I first saw Martin Parr's work I was obsessed with highly saturated, kodachromish film photographs documenting the 20th century. I pretty much only looked at the colour, maybe the bit of composition and the analogue quality that appealed to me more than digital. I probably found comfort in the common aesthetic of my old family photo albums, and I became a huge fan of the superficial qualities he achieved. Now I've started to look more at the eccentricity and inadvertent humour in his subjects.

This photo seems like a visual contradiction to me, maybe a slight insult. Despite Parr delibrately placing the cross in the centre of the image and having the viewer focus on it straight away, the idea of christianity is completely irrelevant. The cross is made of gold and is probably worn more as jewellery than a religious symbol. The glistening sweat on the man's chest suggest he has time to spare in the sun, money to spend on tacky golden necklaces and prefers to spend it that way rather than give money to the poor or go to church. The shapes on the cross suggest it's facing the other way and hiding Jesus, maybe he's too embarassed to show his face. I think a lot of Parr's work is based around humiliating his subjects and perhaps he's created his own comfort zone in this. Perhaps the idea of humiliation stems from his work in fashion photography, and the ridiculous outfits he has to document? I prefer projects such as "Autoportrait", which carries a theme of identity, alongside conveying a huge range of culture with a consistent subject matter. It feels more like a science experiment than a photo project, and comes out with some great results. I also like "Boring Postcards" and "Saddam Hussein Watches" because they ask questions to do with money, necessity, and waste; these projects actually say something about strange objects and their purpose rather than focussing on people who Parr perceives to live their lives/spend money differently.

Experiments

These are just some experiments from messing about with the camera and pushing the results to their extremes in photoshop. With the camera I was more interested in the light and texture, and I was more interested in colour when editing them in photoshop.

Chesterfield

I took these photos around Chesterfield town centre, using the 'firing from the hip' technique. I noticed how most peoples' day in Chesterfield revolved around shopping- either buying or selling, and I came back with a load of photos of people from different generations.

College photos

I liked the texture of this window built up of lines going in different directions- and the illusion that these give to make curving diagonal lines running across (which you can only see very faintly). I also like the minimal colour, which creates a contrasting feeling of simplicity.

I was going to crop this, to make a more interesting composition but really I think I should have taken it from a different angle. I liked the simple palette, especially the contrast of the metallic silver against the brown floor.

I noticed the tone on the leads contrasting with the interesting texture of the wall, and tried to create a composition that would use the leads and bricks to move your eyes around the picture. Again, this is contrasted with simple colours. I like the way the leads have been painted so most people ignore them.

I took this photo because I found the way the pipe had been painted was quite strange and wanted to emphasise that- the way its been painted seems to want to make the pipe invisible against the wall, but from most angles it sticks out and looks confusing, especially from down the corridor. I liked the contrast between the straight parallel lines leading up to one bold curve to the right. I didn't notice the light until afterwards and I think it adds to what I was trying to do with the picture.


I feel pretentious saying this, and maybe it doesn't need saying and I'm trying to slap on a bit of meaning or a theme to these, but looking back on the photos I found a common theme of illusion that must have taken my eye. I wasn't thinking about a theme when I took these photos, only what interested me.