Sunday 31 March 2013

Martin Parr


The images of Tony Ray-Jones’s were a major influence on Martin Parr’s documentary images. In terms of photographic approach and style, they are very similar, although Martin Parr’s images are often framed in such a way that you only given a small portion of a much bigger picture.

If you compare Tony Ray’s image ‘Southend, 1967 to Martin Parr’s image ‘New Brighton, Merseyside, England, 1983-86’, you can see that the people are well composed (in the frame) and look fairly comfortable where they are lying, whereas the people in Martin Parr’s image are uncomfortable, awkward and are in most cases, cut out of the frame.
Southend, 1967
 
New Brighton, Merseyside, England, 1983-86


The same idea applies to Tony Ray’s image ‘Glyndebourne, 1967 and Martin Parr’s image ‘Honiston Pass, Lake District, England, 1994’. In both of these images, we see tourists taking a leisurely break on their journey. But the situation is made odder due to the fact that they are surrounded by animals but don’t appear to be paying attention to them.


Glyndebourne, 1967
 
Honiston Pass, Lake District, England, 1994


The image below is a perfect example of people wanting to seek escapism, but without the hassle of getting to a proper beach (in some cases, people go to these sort of places due to the fact that you can go in all weathers).

Japan, Miyazaki, The Artificial beach inside the Ocean Dome, 1996


The fake landscapes we create feed our desire for escapism and relaxation, but the comforts and luxuries of our lives are included.

BBC News





The Tony Ray-Jones images and the image of a packed beach above in this blog post were meant to be in the previous post, but I was unable to attach them (I referenced these images in the previous blog post)

Images sourced from: Martin Parr by Sandra S. Phillips