Martin Parr Biography:
Martin Parr was born in Epsom,
Surrey, UK in 1952. He got into
photography because of his grandfather who was an amateur photographer. In 1970 to 1973 Parr studied photography
at Manchester Polytechnic. His
early works in 1970 are exclusively black and white photographs. After 1980 he switched over to color
film. Martin Parr has created an international reputation and is best known for
his projects that take a critical look at aspects of modern life. These projects mainly focus on simple and
suburban life in England. Parr
sees himself as a member of the middle class. He has been a part of the middle class environment since
childhood and therefore it is easy for him to focus the lens of his camera on
others who make up the middle class.
In 1994 Parr became a full time
member of Magnum Photographic Corporation, an international photographic
cooperative owned by its photographer members. In recent times Parr has become
intrigued by filmmaking. He also
recently started to place his photography is new areas such as fashion and
advertising. A large portion of
Parr’s work was initiated into the Barbican Art Gallery in 2002; touring Europe
for five years. The University of
Wales Newport selected Parr to be the Professor of Photography. In 2004, He was Guest Artistic Director
for Rencontres D’Arles. Two years
later Parr was awarded the Erich Saloon Prize and the resulting Assorted
Cocktail show opens at Photokina. At the New York Photo Festival Parr was guest
curator in 2008; he curated the New Typologies exhibition. Also in 2008 at Haus de Kunst, Mucich
Parrworld opened. It exhibited
Parr’s collection of objects, postcards and Parr’s personal photography
collection of British and International artists, photobooks and his own
photographs; it toured Europe for the next 2 years. Parr won the Baume et Mercier award in 2008 at PhotoEspana
in acknowledgment of is career and contributions to contemporary
photography. In October of 2010 he
curated the Brighton Photo Biennial.
The photograph that I have chosen
to discuss is an image that was shown to us in class when Professor Allyn was
explaining briefly who each photographer was. It is the image of the tourist woman taking a photograph
with a pyramid directly behind her.
The female figure is centered within the frame; so is the pyramid in the
background. There is a short depth
of field because she is the only object within the frame that is in focus. The pyramid, grass, sky, and small
people in the background are all blurred.
In order to create this type of photograph the aperture has to be large;
most likely between f2-f5.6.
Although the sky and grass are blurry they make a large contribution to
adding bright colors along with the crisp image of the pink shirt the female is
wearing. The female figure
is angled slightly to the side; her shoulders line up with the angle of the
pyramid. The camera the women is
holding is covering her face as if she is frozen taking a photograph this
further confirms the fact that she is a tourist. She also has two brightly colored plastic wristbands that
are often used for admittance into tourist attractions.
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