Common Sensewas first shown in 1999 as an exhibition staged simultaneously in forty-one venues in seventeen countries. This organisational feat earned Parr a Guinness World Record.
The photographs were taken with 35mm ultra saturated film which produces vivid, heightened colours. The pictures depict the minutiae of consumer culture, fragments that testify to the ways in which ordinary people entertain themselves. The proliferation of images in the series is simultaneously exuberant and repulsive. The excess Parr depicts is mimicked in the accumulation of details he presents. His hypersaturated colour contributes to optical overload. The images hover between hedonistic celebration and a cloying sense of disgust for what may be seen as the more debased aspects of contemporary culture. The work’s title plays on the double meaning of common as ubiquitous and vulgar. Parr began his career as a photojournalist and the images in Common Sense are examples of the candid, detached approach typical of observational photography. His dissections of contemporary mores can also be seen in the tradition of English satirists dating back to William Hogarth (1697-1764).
Martin Parr thinks of his photography as an ongoing investigation of human interaction, leisure, and context. Parr is interested in how people live and present themselves to others, particularly in how they display their values. His subjects have included the spectators of a championship polo game, everyday tourists and inhabitants of Switzerland, and goings-on at one of the oldest schools in England. He has a knack for capturing events that are both quirky and mundane, and in attitudes both critical and humorous. Parr also has the unusual practice of presenting the same photographs in different contexts—as art objects or art books, as well as in advertisements and as editorial work. In recent years, Parr has become more interested in filmmaking, and has also been exploring different conventions of fashion photography.
Martin Parr checking Common Sense prints with photobook shop manager Darragh Shanahan at GPI
Brassai (1899–1984) was the first and is still the most famous photographer to chronicle Paris after dark. Born in Hungary, he came to the French capital in 1924, working first as a journalist and then embracing photography, but it was the Paris of the 1930s that forms the bedrock of his body of work.
Walking the city’s streets at night, Brassai captured a previously unseen world on camera. He shows us every face and every facet, from tough guys and showgirls to prostitutes and pleasure-seekers, from the bustling cafés and dance halls to the stillness of deserted streets and mist-shrouded monuments. Through his eyes, Paris becomes a world of shadows, in which light, the prerequisite for any photograph, is reduced to dimly lit windows, streetlamps in the fog, or reflections on a rain-soaked pavement.
This book brings together some of the best-known images from Brassai’s classic Paris After Dark and The Secret Paris of the 30’s, showcasing them alongside previously unpublished photos and archive material. It places his work in its historical and artistic context, analyzing the unique nature of his photographic vision: part reportage, part social document, part poetic exploration. 296 illustrations, 214 in duotone
Martin Parr – Common Sense – Limited edition signed laser prints, Print No.14
€75.00
1 in stock
Description
Available exclusively at the Gallery of Photography Ireland, signed by Martin Parr.
Print information:
Limited edition prints from the 1999 Martin Parr Common Sense exhibition at Gallery of Photography Ireland.
A3 colour laser copies (Xerox prints), dimensions 296 × 420 mm, unframed.
About Common Sense:
Common Sense was first shown in 1999 as an exhibition staged simultaneously in forty-one venues in seventeen countries. This organisational feat earned Parr a Guinness World Record.
The photographs were taken with 35mm ultra saturated film which produces vivid, heightened colours. The pictures depict the minutiae of consumer culture, fragments that testify to the ways in which ordinary people entertain themselves. The proliferation of images in the series is simultaneously exuberant and repulsive. The excess Parr depicts is mimicked in the accumulation of details he presents. His hypersaturated colour contributes to optical overload. The images hover between hedonistic celebration and a cloying sense of disgust for what may be seen as the more debased aspects of contemporary culture. The work’s title plays on the double meaning of common as ubiquitous and vulgar. Parr began his career as a photojournalist and the images in Common Sense are examples of the candid, detached approach typical of observational photography. His dissections of contemporary mores can also be seen in the tradition of English satirists dating back to William Hogarth (1697-1764).
About the Artist:
Martin Parr thinks of his photography as an ongoing investigation of human interaction, leisure, and context. Parr is interested in how people live and present themselves to others, particularly in how they display their values. His subjects have included the spectators of a championship polo game, everyday tourists and inhabitants of Switzerland, and goings-on at one of the oldest schools in England. He has a knack for capturing events that are both quirky and mundane, and in attitudes both critical and humorous. Parr also has the unusual practice of presenting the same photographs in different contexts—as art objects or art books, as well as in advertisements and as editorial work. In recent years, Parr has become more interested in filmmaking, and has also been exploring different conventions of fashion photography.
Visit https://www.galleryofphotography.ie/martin-parr
Additional information
You may also like…
The Photobook: A History (Volume 3) by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger
Related products
In Flagrante Two: Chris Killip
Collect Contemporary Photography: Jocelyn Phillips
Paris Nocturne: Brassai
Brassai (1899–1984) was the first and is still the most famous photographer to chronicle Paris after dark. Born in Hungary, he came to the French capital in 1924, working first as a journalist and then embracing photography, but it was the Paris of the 1930s that forms the bedrock of his body of work.
Walking the city’s streets at night, Brassai captured a previously unseen world on camera. He shows us every face and every facet, from tough guys and showgirls to prostitutes and pleasure-seekers, from the bustling cafés and dance halls to the stillness of deserted streets and mist-shrouded monuments. Through his eyes, Paris becomes a world of shadows, in which light, the prerequisite for any photograph, is reduced to dimly lit windows, streetlamps in the fog, or reflections on a rain-soaked pavement.
This book brings together some of the best-known images from Brassai’s classic Paris After Dark and The Secret Paris of the 30’s, showcasing them alongside previously unpublished photos and archive material. It places his work in its historical and artistic context, analyzing the unique nature of his photographic vision: part reportage, part social document, part poetic exploration. 296 illustrations, 214 in duotone
Reflecting 1916 – Photography and the Easter Rising: Gallery of Photography Ireland