Photo © Paula Hietaranta
Last week Martin Parr, a world-famous phenomen in photography, visited Helsinki to attend the opening of his first solo exhibition in Finland and also to meet with the students at Aalto University´s School of Arts, Design and Architecture where he was teaching about 20 years ago.”Luckily I needed not to teach after that”, he says.
If you are familiar with Martin Parr´s way to photograph, you know what to expect: real, unpolished, funny, ugly pictures. They are light years away from those tourist photos trying to sell the travel destinations. When Martin Parr takes for example a close-up photo of a meal using his macro lens and ring flash it doesn´t look delicious – it looks something you would not be tempted to eat.
”My job as a photographer is to create fiction from reality”, he says.These photos were taken last August on a journey from Helsinki to Oulu, and they are so true to life that looking at them is almost like being there.
In the exhibition you can see also a short video about the trip and Martin´s gentle way to photograph people. That tall, silent British guy is at the same time a nosy child and a goal oriented adult, who is determined to take a lot of pictures and a lot of bad pictures.
”I am more in favour of provoking than selling. Bad pictures are often the interesting ones”, he says. And smiles.
”I am more in favour of provoking than selling. Bad pictures are often the interesting ones”, he says. And smiles.
Martin Parr: Think of Finland is open until April 8th at Laboratory, Erottajankatu 9 B inner courtyard, Helsinki 13. Open Tue-Sun 11 am to 6 pm. Free entry.
Exhibition is sponsored by Nokia.
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