Film Photography on TV

I just watched that John, it was very good indeed and the section on Vanley Burke was brilliant. Thanks for posting that.
 
Yeah, it say's something about the marque that is Martin Parr that his contribution is a "specially commissioned work" for the programme, whereas everyone else is a participant...:rolleyes:

The only thing that doesn't mesh with me is that last contributor, Laura Pannack, I thought the piece was a comment on documentary, social and occupational, not posed portraiture.
I mean its one thing to shoot candidly, to selectively frame a story or perhaps direct a subject to be natural in their environment, its quite another to arrange subjects in contrived poses, intimate embraces, outstretched arms and directed facial expressions, that's not documentation its a manufactured scene.......so I dunno what that was all about.
 
Caught this last night. Was a good watch. Loved the piece on Giles Duley and Laura Pannack - although reference the latter, I know what John means on the selectively framing of the subject. None the less, I quite liked her work - and the fact that nearly every other word was accompanied by the awesome thunk of her Hasselblad :)
 
Enjoyed that. Thanks for posting it up.

There's not enough photography on the tele.
 
joxby said:
Yeah, it say's something about the marque that is Martin Parr that his contribution is a "specially commissioned work" for the programme, whereas everyone else is a participant...:rolleyes:

The only thing that doesn't mesh with me is that last contributor, Laura Pannack, I thought the piece was a comment on documentary, social and occupational, not posed portraiture.
I mean its one thing to shoot candidly, to selectively frame a story or perhaps direct a subject to be natural in their environment, its quite another to arrange subjects in contrived poses, intimate embraces, outstretched arms and directed facial expressions, that's not documentation its a manufactured scene.......so I dunno what that was all about.
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I thought it was a pretty accurate representation of Summer as a teenager in London. Lots of intimacy, desire, and even worry for what the future brings. IMO there's documentary that captures what a time and a place feels like and documentary that's more concerned with what happened, and I'd put Laura Pannack's work that was shown in the episode in the former category.
 
just got round to watching it and it was ok. I really don't understand the point of martin parr's stuff. Even he admitted to being a bit of a spray and pray merchant. I dont understand how these people get to be "famous". Good PR no doubt. Ive forgotten the name of the coloured guy, but i liked his stuff, it had more of a documentary feel to it. An interesting 30 mins though, its good to see some photography programs on the telly.
 
Didn't Martin Parr become really well known after shots he'd taken in the 80s resurfaced? Part of the short-term nostalgia we're cursed with these days, people wanting to remember their youth and not minding that it's in technicolor because that's what old film photos looked like. To be honest, I wasn't particularly impressed with the photos he took for the show but I put that down to it not really mattering as he was getting paid anyway.
 
AshleyC said:
I really don't understand the point of martin parr's stuff.
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^^^WHS^^^

I've never really seen the appeal TBH, I remember people going on about his stuff and being decidedly underwhelmed when I eventually got to see some of his stuff at a gallery. Seems like a nice bloke though.
 
I think a lot of it, as has been mentioned, is the historic side. You're looking back in time and nostalgia is kicking in. One of the points made about his stuff was how elements of his images played off each other. I only really saw one example of that where a guy with 2 dogs was sitting outside a tent next to a sign saying "sheep". The rest of it just seemed to be random shots of the back of peoples heads with nothing else in frame to give any contradictory or complimentary elements. I'm the same with Bresson and Walker Evans, I've got a couple of their books that people rave over and i just don't get it.

I do wish i had his bravery in just walking up to strangers and shooting them though, i guess having a bbc camera crew helps :) But i would love to be able to do that.
 
AshleyC said:
just got round to watching it and it was ok. I really don't understand the point of martin parr's stuff. Even he admitted to being a bit of a spray and pray merchant. I dont understand how these people get to be "famous". Good PR no doubt. Ive forgotten the name of the coloured guy, but i liked his stuff, it had more of a documentary feel to it. An interesting 30 mins though, its good to see some photography programs on the telly.
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One really great book, The Last Resort, that just captured a time and a place perfectly, and kept people talking about it. Much like Robert Frank and The Americans. Then a really controversial acceptance into the Magnum crew, he was one of the first photographers there that shifted it from a purely photojournalistic collective to one that's a mix of fine art and photojournalism. Some people feel that he hasn't produced anything else of note since then though, that he's just turning whatever he's taking photos of, wherever he may be, into a variation of what he did in The Last Resort.

As for being a spray and pray merchant, I'll mention Robert Frank again - for The Americans he shot around 36,000 frames before eventually narrowing it down to the 80 or so in the final book. I wouldn't say Parr's a spray and pray kind of photographer, he just knows to work a scene as much as he can. All the 'greats' do the same.
 
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Thanks for posting the link. I really enjoyed it. I agree about Martin Parr's work on the show - it was really boring, but I do like some of his older stuff from the seaside towns. I was going to write that it's probably a bit unfair to expect someone to produce something great when you follow them for only one day, but having thought about it...I'll bet Vivian Maier or Diane Arbus would have come away with something much more inspiring.

Two thoughts struck me about Martin Parr:
1. He must have been apoplectic when they stopped making Kodachrome, and,
2. How many times has this guy been punched hard in the face? Oh man. He must be tough or quick!
 
Tonight 10:40 BBC4

In the late 1970s Chalkie Davies was a photographer at the New Musical Express, taking pictures of bands like Thin Lizzy, the Clash, the Sex Pistols and many more. Now, as his first major exhibition opens atthe National Museum of Wales in Cardiff, and showing as part of BBC Music Day, he looks back on an extraordinary life,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05xd4yv
 
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