Presentations – Martin Parr

• British documentary photographer who was most famous for his critical outlook and documentation of the British middle class

• Initially started taking photos in black and white, but became one of the pioneers for colour photography

• Used a satirical method in his photography that poked fun in a somewhat light-hearted but critical manner. For example one of his most influential published works ‘The Last Resort’ was said to display a ‘stunning satire of Britain’, but it was also highly criticized for perhaps being too cruel

• He provoked photographers to think ‘out of the box’ and encouraged to take the viewer’s gaze away to a different side of a situation and to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. In terms of my own personal project I hope to take cultural objects and put them in positions that are out out of place to provoke the viewer to gain a sense of confusion and discomfort to reflect my own personal feelings about my own cultural position in society. My last intended photo, the cultural portrait double exposure shot, very much agrees with Parr’s method of finding the ‘extraordinary in the ordinary’. I hope to overlay an image within my own personal portrait that is reminiscent of my own culture.