• Members 2048 posts
    April 18, 2025, 1:57 p.m.

    This is a link to a set of pictures in the Guardian. Parr was invited to photograph the cherry blossom season tourism in Kyoto.

    I cannot make my mind up about Parr's photography. This is a pretty powerful set of pictures describing mass tourism. But there is always a little sneering at ordinary people in Parr's photography. Or is it us the viewer who likes to sneer at this subjects?

  • Members 1136 posts
    April 18, 2025, 3:29 p.m.

    I love his photography. I believe no one has documented the daily ordinary life that extensively and strikingly, funny as he has, but I find this particular set a bit mundane. A few quirky shots maybe, but nothing very inspiring.

  • Members 2048 posts
    April 18, 2025, 4:14 p.m.

    Yes, for a Magnum photographer, this set is very average. A couple stick in my mind.

    He lost a lot of my respect over the Butturini, London "affair". Instead of standing up to rampant cancel culture that infests Britain, he did a massive mia culpa and asked for the book to be pulped, to save his professional skin.

    Butturini was a member of the progressive far left here in Italy, and Parr's cowardice was not well received in cultural circles here in Italy. The book was officially withdrawn and pulped, but some second hand booksellers obtained copies. Now that the storm has passed it has quietly resurfaced and is even available on Amazon it

    Here are couple of links.You can translate this one in Google with a left click. This one is the UK perspective.

  • April 18, 2025, 5:01 p.m.

    I read the Guardian online every day, and this is the first time I have been made aware of Martin Parr. His pictures do look a little ho-hum, and I cannot understand why the Japanese make such a fuss of cherry blossom. But the things they photograph are very different from what I shoot -- like many orientals they spend many hours documenting weddings with special shooting locations and sessions.

    I jsut put it down to a cultural difference.

    David

  • Members 2048 posts
    April 18, 2025, 7:14 p.m.

    David, he is pretty famous in the UK. He was one of the leading lights in the "Documentary" movement of the Eighties, before conceptual art photography became the thing. His most famous and I think best photography can be found in this book: The Last Resort.

  • April 18, 2025, 9:48 p.m.

    Apart from one year in Edinburgh, 25 years ago, I‘ve not lived in the UK since 1983, which probably explains my ignorance!

    David