Science Museum Media Space

[Mike Farley]

This a a new location in London set up as a collaborative venture by the Science and National Media Museums. It is intended for the display of photography and other associated items by drawing on the collections of the two contributing organisations. The opening exhbibition, Only In England, which features photographs by Tony Ray-Jones and Martin Parr, runs until 16 March. It is certainly on my own list of events and I was wondering whether anyone would want to join me on a mutually convenient day. The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibtion is also nearby at the Natural History Museum, so at the risk of experiencing photography overload, it might be possible to take in both on the same day.

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmu ... gland.aspx

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/wpy/visit/index.html

[davidc]

Urgh, Martin Parr. Absolute tosh if I can be so bold

[Mike Farley]

Urgh, Martin Parr. Absolute tosh if I can be so bold

Strange, I hear that he talks very highly of you.

[davidc]

I couldn't care less what he thinks of me! I'm not the one who does this and pretends that it's some kind of cutting insight into modern life or that I'm some kind of photographic celebrity.

These are two of his most highly acclaimed images. Seriously.

http://mediastore.magnumphotos.com/CoreXDoc/MAG/Media/TR2/c/1/c/b/LON48454.jpg
http://mediastore4.magnumphotos.com/CoreXDoc/MAG/Media/TR2/f/0/a/1/LON143823.jpg

I also think he bills himself as somehow trying to capture the essence of a location, people or culture through gritty, down to earth and no-nonsense images when in fact all he produces is driven from his own pre-conceived bias and poorly photographed to boot.

[Mike Farley]

As with anything aesthetic, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Parr is a well known photographer, member of Magnum and author of a number of books, so he must be doing something right for quite a few people. I quite enjoy some of his work and did briefly consider buying his well known New Brighton book when it was republished, but there was not enough in it to justify either the price or the space on the bookshelf. I guess that means I am not exactly a fan.

I was aware of his food photography project, but none of the better images which were featured in an Amateur Photographer article to coincide with the book launch did much for me. As for the examples you gave, which by looking at the URL appear to be offered for sale, I had to check that they were not spoofs. Perhaps they are bought as aids for training judges in giving constructive feedback? Now there's a challenge.

It does highlight that there are several styles of photography and that not everyone shares the same taste. Just think of the £2.7m paid for Andreas Gursky's Rhine II if you want an example.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/ ... graph.html

There are benefits to going to this exhibition. You get to see original prints which are always better that JPEGs view on the Internet or book reproductions. To find out what you do like and improve your own work, you have to look at other stuff as well. And finally, you get to see Tony Ray-Jones' work as well.

[Mike Farley]

Urgh, Martin Parr. Absolute tosh if I can be so bold

I have just come back from the exhibition, which was excellent. The Martin Parr images were monochrome shots from his early days when he spent four years living in Hebden Bridge and were inspired by Tony Ray-Jones' work. They are nothing like Parr's later colour photos and complemented well those by Ray-Jones.

The exhibition is in three sections. The first consists of Tony Ray-Jones' published images, then Parr's and finally a selection from Ray-Jones' unpublished work curated by Parr from the contact sheets. In other words, shots rejected by Ray-Jones at the time and reviewed after a period of over 40 years. For me, this was the least successful part of the exhibition and although Parr claims that Ray-Jones was using space between the subjects well and had a knack for leading the eye around an image, I felt that Ray-Jones' assessment had been correct in most instances. Yes, there were a few which I enjoyed, but not as many as in the first section.

As ever at such shows, I played "judge" to assess the merits of images as if they had been entered into a club competition. Take this one for instance, with its lopside composition, the cow growing out of the woman's head and the cropped cows at either side. That's a good 8 if ever I saw one.