We're going to do a task in which we'll go out and take an image or several images and put them together as a final piece that will have been inspired by and influenced by the work of Martin Parr. Before I went out and started taking photographs I decided it would be a good idea to look at some of Parr's work and decide what elements of his style I wished to incorporate in my own work.
Here are a few images that influenced my idea and the work I produced for this task, I want the images I've chosen of Parr's to really show and represent my thought process behind the whole thing.
This is from Parr's 'Boring Postcard' series. I like how he's taken something that's meant to be exciting (part of a Holiday) and turned it into something dull, mundane and where everything looks the same. Martin Parr himself said he thought the series was 'mildly humorous' in an 'ironic' sense. I wanted to use the style he'd used here, take photos of a range of the same objects (that are all different, like the beds in this are all different) I think the repetition made this image work for Parr and I hope it'll make my stronger as a final piece.
This image is from one of Parr's series/ photo books 'Bored Couples'. Again I was looking at his use of looking at things and taking photographs of something and making it look so average and mundane no matter what the subject is. Although some people might consider these photographs boring I think again that once they've been put together they become very interesting. Although I really like this one, even on it's own. I think it captures a moment that wouldn't usually be caught on camera as couples would usually be seen smiling or posing at the camera, even candid shots of couples are usually of them looking more happy or together, by holding hands or embracing etc.
I chose to include this one because of the colours in it. The images I've previously shown have been of Parr's have been quite dull and flat in colour which has made the image look bland and boring, this however is the complete opposite it's bright, vivid and makes the whole thing look more interesting and vibrant. This image feels warmer and more summery in general in comparison to the others. A lot of Parr's work is really bright and garish though so I thought this was something I should really include in my work.
This was my final image that I produced for the task. I took inspiration from the postcard image I posted for this task, I took photographs of different types of the same mundane thing. When I thought about it, I never really look at my feet or other peoples feet when I'm walking or going somewhere, especially when I'm in town or city areas because of how dull, dirty and plain the concrete floors/pavements are and I never really look at peoples feet shoes. When I thought about it I decided to do a series of peoples feet/the floor they were stood on at the time, then use the same technique that Parr did and put them all together as one. Not only did I use repetition to produce work in the style of his I made sure that I used something that might be considered boring or un interesting. I then put the images together in Photoshop sizing them and using the grid to make sure they were all exactly the same size. I then altered the colours, contrast and curves a lot to get this affect. I wanted to make it really garish and vibrant, words that have been used many times to describe Parr's work. Overall I'm happy with what I created and my final images that were intended to be in the style of Martin Parr using things that have influenced me from his work and using subject, colour and repetition when thinking about creating the image as a whole.
