Beijing Silvermine is a unique photographic portrait of the capital and the life of its inhabitants following the Cultural Revolution. It covers a period of 20 years, from 1985, namely when silver film started being used massively in China, to 2005, when digital photography started taking over. These 20 years are those of China’s economic opening, when people started prospering, travelling, consuming, having fun.
The year is coming to a close. And the holiday season is in full swing. Time for that special gift for that special someone. Or perhaps for yourself. If you are not sure what to get this year, keeping in mind that some even believe this will be our last year…ever, this might be a good time for that special gift. Photo-Eye Magazine has published The Best Books of 2012. A selection of books chosen by a large group of experts, editors and photographers. Among them Martin Parr, Erik Kessels, Todd Hido and Alec Soth.
Today a must see for all photography enthusiast out there. A BBC documentary called The Genius of Photography.
I wasn’t able to integrate the clips into this post so please click the following link to watch it at DocumentaryHeaven: The Genius of Photography
Or if you just want to own this documentary, you can purchase it: DVD – The Genius of Photography
Magnum photographer Martin Parr documents the ordinary and extraordinary. He considers himself to be a documentary photographer. And documenting he does. The way we ‘normally’ would label documentary photography is when the subject is that of war, hunger or poverty. Martin Parr gives us quite the opposite. He directs his camera upon the rich western social life.
His work looks like point and shoot photography. Of the normal things we encounter day by day. Like supermarkets, fast food and our fashion style at the beach. But the way he constructs an image makes us giggle and laugh at the weirdness that we all can relate to. He manages to come very close to the subject, almost always using a wide-angle lens. And by using the flash (often a ring flash) his photographs get that signature look. The look of something very colorful that shows us a raw or weird view of the way some of us behave or dresses at for example the beach. When I look at his work I get a cheap feeling of the richness we all enjoy in the west.
