Artist Research- Martin Parr

Martin Parr is a documentary photographer who has looked at the theme of Englishness in his project 'Think of England'. This project documents England in a uniquely different way, adding high saturated colour in a comical manner. I feel that these photographs are very subjective, which is created by Martin staging the scene or by him adding an English object e.g. a flag. I like the way he has added an object in each photograph that represents British culture because it creates the idea of englishness and can reflect the country. His photographs can come across as over exaggerated and not showing true colours of a place, which is the complete opposite to the documentary style. I believe that documentary photography approach should be used to convey imagery in a turthful manner.I like the way that his images are over the top and convey England in a new light that might never been seen.

This project of Martin's links to my idea, through the theme of englishness and how he captured objects that represent British culture and placed them in an unusual way. I feel that the idea of British identity can also be discovered through his imagery and shown in a imaginative form, through colours, positioning and composition. The idea that Martin is showing a range of cultural qualities of England should teach the audience more about that specific country. This is an idea that I want to take into consideration becuase I want the audience to understand the importance of Englishness and want them to create an idea of why the B&B's are an important aspect of England. Overall, the idea of representation of a place is key and links strongly to my concept of capturing objects in a B&B that reflect a country/place.

Martin was interviewed about this English project and talked about his photography style and approach.

What about the wit and irony of your pictures: how important are these elements to you?

“Documentary is subjective and I try to make it as engaging as possible. I’m in the entertainment business. There are serious undertones to what I do – my pictures are ambiguous, as I think good photography should be – but it isn’t my job to tell people what they are.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/photography/what-to-see/martin-parr-if-i-knew-how-to-take-a-great-photo-id-stop/

I believe that Martin's photography is very subjective and shows staged imagery in a unrealistic manner that is used to intrigue an audience. The over editing adds to the image to create an interesting picture of what British culture is like.

#FinalMajorProject