Street Photography

                                         

 Martin Parr

Martin Parr is a well known Documentary photographer most known for his British Street Photography much like Photographer Tony Ray Jones; whom had a huge impact and influence on Martin Parr's work.

Being familiar with Martin Parr's work I find his street photography inspiring and i'm particularly interested in his photographs taking of the working class citizens of Britain, such as his photographs from the 'Life's a Beach' exhibit this is because its simply an observation of the way people live that is photographed, yet so effective due to the natural quirkiness of people and ironies in life.


                                                                                                    

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This image is from Martin Parr's range of beach photography. The image is interesting as there are a lot of things going on.
The photograph has a realistic feel about it because of the normal scenario of a man sunbathing on the beach and a little girl playing near by this is how I know that it is Documentary photography because it is a photographic record of real people.
Although the image is a normal scenario Parr has included humour as the man is sunbathing under a tanker which looks like it is about to go over him. This could be a representation of how people do not realize the little ironies in life.
The image has quite a warm feel to it due to the colour scheme which is made up of orange due to the sand, tanker, mans skin and the young girls hair; making this the main colour and the most dominant colour in the image.


The image above is from Parr's 'Life's a Beach' work yet it is quite apparent that the image was taken on a British Beach, this is because of clues such as the English news paper that the man in the centre of the photograph is reading, therefore I feel Parr was intending on portraying English beaches especially because the news paper is in the centre of the photo to catch attention immediately.
I think the image is taken at a really interesting angle as it is almost as if it was taken from a child's prospective as the eye level is level with the little girl next to the man and the photo makes us look up to the adults in the background of the image, making them look high up and dominant.
I really like the brightness and clarity of this photograph. The image on a whole is really bright and vibrant but this is because of the colours caused by the people in the image not just the lighting as the sky looks quite toned down and dull whereas the people in the image are really striking due to the bright sharpness of them. I think this works really well as the sky gives more clues to the location of the image, as a clear sunny sky would indicate the image was taken in a hot country whereas the sky in this image helps us realize Parr is portraying British beaches.
The photograph on a whole is really uplifting and vibrant, this is mainly because of the colour scheme and the prospective of the image also makes it fun but my favourite part of the image is the humour, I think its really effective that the man is holding a newspaper covering his face and most his chest that states 'Fatso' then his stomach is just below the newspaper it adds irony to the image making it more interesting on a whole.