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‘What a beautiful bunch they are’: Martin Parr’s Glastonbury 2023

Based on the selection there, they look like mediocre snaps. Very disappointing, given his pedigree and reputation. I’m surprised he didn’t make more of the opportunity…
 
Changed a bit since 1987.

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I was there - that went up during Elvis Costello's excellent set (surprised I remember that at all...). Was a great set, first half just EC, then the Attractions came on...

Think there was another thread or comment on these snaps. Mediocre at best.
 
such good cameras around in 87....what was he doing. Is it supposed to reflect the amount of 'herbs' ingested, because otherwise????
 
Martin Parr always strikes me as a very nice man, an impression gained purely from hearing him speak in interviews and so on, but I've not enjoyed his photography since he went from traditional observational B&W to hyper-colour with flash infill. Some people are offended by his wry take on the British at play, but it doesn't worry me.

I find these pretty ordinary, and often downright poor. I'd be infinitely more interested in seeing idomybest's unique take on an event like this.

An aside, I think that taking photos of people when they've got sunglasses on is almost always a waste of time. If you can't see the eyes - at least of a sighted person - then you can't really see the person. Some of these are an exception where the glasses are part of the persona, but not many.
 
Parr is very ill, and I think this work betrays that, they're really not good photographs. His best work, the early b&w The Non Conformists, and the colour The Last Resort, for example, is among the best social documentary photography ever published in the UK.
 
sideshowbob said:
Parr is very ill, and I think this work betrays that, they're really not good photographs. His best work, the early b&w The Non Conformists, and the colour The Last Resort, for example, is among the best social documentary photography ever published in the UK.
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I remember 'The Last Resort' being heavily criticised at the time, by some for the use of colour but more significantly because of it's inherent perpetuation of myths around 'the Working Class' and contribution to 'victim blaming' (both criticisms I agree with to this day) . He countered this brilliantly at the time with 'The Cost of Living' and its ultra sharp observations of what Parr termed 'the comfortable classes' - compounded also in his collaboration in 'From A to B' which cut across social demographics.

His work since then has continued to be biting, incisive and acutely witty ... but also in many ways warm and endearing. None of this seems present in the Glasto pics which have no sense of involvement for me at all...

However, I think he has earned his stellar reputation as one of the best (if not 'the' best) documentary photographers of his generation so this is but a very minor blip really.
 
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This latest body of work is definitely not his best effort and he has been responsible for introducing some level of acceptance of color negative film in UK photography around the time Paul Graham was working on interesting projects as well. I suspect that William Eggleston was a possible source of the inspiration to use color when black and white imagery was the main vehicle of documentary and reportage photography.

Anyway I hope that Martin is not too ill and recovers very soon, not seen him for a while but he was always a good person to chat with even when he was one of my tutors at university. I too like Martin's early black and white images, they are such a contrast to his later colour images.
 
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