Martin Parr

Martin Parr is a documentary photographer and photo journalist. Is biggest influence was his grandfather. His style of photography is social documentary. His approach is intimate, anthropological (study of human behaviour) and satirical. He says he likes to give people space to expose there lives and values. I think he does this perfectly. The people in most of his photographs are just doing their usual thing,not posing for the shot. He has travelled the world capturing these wonderful shots. He likes to document modern society as it truly is, its different levels of wealth and poverty and to get people to debate such issues. His work is viewed in mainly magazines and newspapers although he says this is getting more difficult with the media and public's fascination with celebrity.

Although i don't think his photographs are great as far as composition is concerned they do take you right in and stare. This picture illustrates the wealth of the high society in Russia and shows a side of the country the rest of the world doesn't see. In my opinion the topic and message of the photograph is more important to Parr than composition. I like his work for being different and for making me think when i look at it.

This photograph illustrates perfectly his style. It looks like someones holiday snap. Having studied his style though i can see that he doesn't go for the cliched shots, which in this case would have been of people sunbathing in perfect poses. The woman at the front, looking completely out of place but obviously not concerned by her surroundings, is clearly his focus in this picture. It captures the human behaviour and satire he likes to portray.