“We are drowning in images. Photography is used as a propaganda tool, which serves to sell products and ideas. I use the same approach to show aspects to reality.” —Martin Parr
Just in time for summer, the noted British, Magnum photographer, Martin Parr’s, latest exhibit, Life’s a Beach, opens tomorrow at Aperture Gallery here in NYC. Mr. Parr, who enjoys immense popularity and recognition, has done much for Photography. In addition to his signature work, he’s a lecturer, collector, filmmaker, and all around disciple for the medium.
Parr’s work has always had its detractors asking whether he is taking the piss and exploiting the public for his own amusement and needs, or whether he is a serious artist revealing ourselves through color, composition and fill flash. Like most things, I think the truth lies somewhere in between. Martin Parr is doing things his own way.
“Life’s a Beach” is a color parade around the world. Parr’s keen interest in beaches (although not a sun bunny himself) and people takes us from the shores of India to Latvia to Thailand to Mexico and onwards, transforming banal scenes into ironic, humorous, curious and sometimes dispiriting riffs on people at the beach. It’s all classic Martin Parr.
In addition to the show, which will be a crowd-pleaser, there’s also a new mini-edition of the monograph available, as well as a video of Parr presenting the book. All great stuff. Martin Parr once signed my notebook not with his name alone, but rather inscribing,”Martin Parr was here.” Indeed, the same holds true for his images. —Lane Nevares
Tippi Hedren in The Birds, photographed by Philippe Halsman, 1963.
Salvador Dali at a book signing, taken with a fisheye lens, by Philippe Halsman, 1963.
Writer and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, Pont des Arts, Paris, 1946.
Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum
