What has become of us all?

[chuckroast]

It seems like he took a million pictures (he claims that in Utterly Stupid and Inattentive) and thousands ended up in books or magazines (includes over 140 of his own published photo books). That seems like an accomplishment. He's not well known for no reason.

I have no desire to besmirch Parr's vision but two things are worth pointing out:

Popularity is not a measure of quality. If it were, Burger King would get a Michelin Star or two. His work was, I think, popular because the topics were pedestrian and the subjects every-man. That's not a dig, some of it is quite entertaining. See also Elliott Erwitt et al.

The post 1960s Art School and the arts business that ensued produced an ethos that promoted this sort thing. Wildly so in some cases. As one example see the work of Joel Meyerowitz. I find his work banal to the point of pain, but the New York hoidy toidy crowd drooled all over him and made him a star. I find Parr a far better exemplar of this sort of photography, but to each his own, I guess.

P.S. I wish someone would make me rich buying my most boring pictures. I can do tedious with the best of 'em ...

 

[chuckroast]

I'm sure a book will be published with 10001 selfies and make someone famous.

Excellence is rare and hard to achieve. The new photographic technology democratizes the production of trash, but the only thing that's new about it is the rate at which it is produced. Theodore Sturgeon remains prescient - 90 percent of everything is crud.

What is more obnoxious is the the dumbing down of excellence and declaring everything as superlative. Witness the frequency of use of "awesome" (so completely misused), "incredible", "great", and so forth. As Rand noted in "The Fountainhead", when people lack to ability to create truly great work, they will simply redefine "great" down to the point where they can compete. The modern arts movement is littered with this.

 

[CMoore]

I have no desire to besmirch Parr's vision but two things are worth pointing out:

Popularity is not a measure of quality. If it were, Burger King would get a Michelin Star or two. His work was, I think, popular because the topics were pedestrian and the subjects every-man. That's not a dig, some of it is quite entertaining. See also Elliott Erwitt et al.

The post 1960s Art School and the arts business that ensued produced an ethos that promoted this sort thing. Wildly so in some cases. As one example see the work of Joel Meyerowitz. I find his work banal to the point of pain, but the New York hoidy toidy crowd drooled all over him and made him a star. I find Parr a far better exemplar of this sort of photography, but to each his own, I guess.

P.S. I wish someone would make me rich buying my most boring pictures. I can do tedious with the best of 'em ...

You never know what your future holds. You may yet get that big payday

The People/Things that are popular and high quality seem to have both in big amounts.
It is all a matter of taste i suppose, but you could argue The Beatles had both attributes.

Wasn't Martin Parr, at some point, a Magnum photographer.?
That certainly stands for something.

Another member said he self published 140 books. That is a TON.
Quality might be subjective, but 140 books must be vindictive of a fair amount of popularity.
I had no idea
140 books in very unique in itself.
He might not appeal to me, but obviously he appeals to A LOT Of People
Good Grief, that number is astounding

It seems like he took a million pictures (he claims that in Utterly Stupid and Inattentive) and thousands ended up in books or magazines (includes over 140 of his own published photo books). That seems like an accomplishment. He's not well known for no reason.

 

[Don_ih]

He didn’t take thousands of selfies.

He did an entire series of autoportraits.

 

[Don_ih]

Wasn't Martin Parr, at some point, a Magnum photographer.?

He was the president of Magnum for a significant amount of time, also.

He was accepted into Magnum very contentiously. Significant numbers of members said they would resign if he was accepted. Cartier-Bresson said he couldn't understand his photography - it was like he was from another planet.

Parr is a bit of a populist in terms of artistic photography. To say he's like Burger King is apt. Burger King has a restaurant in every city - what Michelin star restaurant matches that kind of popularity? To deny that "popularity" has merit is totally and irredeemably snobbish and elitist.

To a great extent, the majority of well-known photographers are only known due to being somewhat populist.

There are far fewer Mapplethorpe fans than Winegrand fans. Maybe using the handle of a bullwhip that way is the equivalent of a Michelin star.

 

[Alex Benjamin]

There are far fewer Mapplethorpe fans than Winegrand fans.

And sad that is. Mapplethorpe's Flora: The Complete Flowers is one of the most exquisite photo book in my collection.

 

[chuckroast]

He was the president of Magnum for a significant amount of time, also.

He was accepted into Magnum very contentiously. Significant numbers of members said they would resign if he was accepted. Cartier-Bresson said he couldn't understand his photography - it was like he was from another planet.

Parr is a bit of a populist in terms of artistic photography. To say he's like Burger King is apt. Burger King has a restaurant in every city - what Michelin star restaurant matches that kind of popularity? To deny that "popularity" has merit is totally and irredeemably snobbish and elitist.

Popularity in and of itself does not speak to merit. There are plenty of very popular things in the so-called arts that are complete dreck. I shall refrain from naming them.

To a great extent, the majority of well-known photographers are only known due to being somewhat populist.

There are far fewer Mapplethorpe fans than Winegrand fans. Maybe using the handle of a bullwhip that way is the equivalent of a Michelin star.

Ewww

 

[Pieter12]

There are plenty of very popular things in the so-called arts that are complete dreck.

The Emperor has no clothes.

 

[photogear]

He didn’t take thousands of selfies.