The Hepworth Gallery Feb 2016

On a brief visit home to Leeds over the Chinese New Year period, I took the opportunity to visit the exhibition of Martin Parr’s latest project at the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield. The project is a study of the “The Rhubarb Triangle” which exists in this area of West Yorkshire.

It might be the fact that after living away from West Yorkshire for some 18 years, 8 in the Isle of Man and the past 7 in Hong Kong, but the sight of a project on something so close to home was quite an emotional feeling.

Rhubarb is such a British thing, a fruit that is a vegetable and I grew up (although not exactly in the Rhubarb Triangle) with stories that how when my mum was young that where I house was now situated, was then rhubarb fields as far as the eye could see. My grandparents always had a small rhubarb patch behind the shed (perhaps subconsciously in honor of this fact as it was rarely eaten).

The exhibition was laid out logically clockwise around the room, with the different sections of the rhubarb production on separate walls, Farming (growing), Harvest, Public consumption, Products. All the prints were in the same aspect ratio, with a mix of A2 and some A0 prints – this was the first thing that I picked up on as it is something that was highlighted to me in my first assignment feedback. Keep collection in the same aspect for visual consistency.

What I found most interesting and perhaps reassuring was that Parr’s images are ordinary; they are a compilation of the type of image you would expect in a photo essay, environmental shots, portraits and details. They show the “warts and all” of the apparently hard dirty work of producing commercial rhubarb and here is a closeness to the subject.

I think it is entirely fortuitous that attended this exhibition at this point in the course because it has helped with my understanding of the “distance between us and the camera” and the context of the images.

While Parr is quite obviously a stranger in the rhubarb triangle as I have said above there is closeness to the subject, he has captured the essence of the back-breaking work, this either through his love of rhubarb or interaction with the protagonists.

Also, the context I find these images very common (not a criticism) just because it what I associate with my home in the west riding. If they were viewed by someone here in Hong Kong, for example, they will be full of mystery and unseen detail, in the same way as I see the street markets of Asia.

Bibliography

Bayley, S., Chisholm, K., Killen, M., Delingpole, J. and Wordsworth, D. (2016) ‘I enjoy the banal’: Stephen Bayley meets Martin Parr. Available at: http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/02/i-enjoy-the-banal-stephen-bayley-meets-martin-parr/ (Accessed: 6 March 2016).

Cumming, E. (2016) Mysteries of the Rhubarb triangle, revealed by Martin Parr. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/global/2016/jan/31/mysteries-of-the-rhubarb-triangle (Accessed: 6 March 2016).

Parr, M. and Magnum (no date) The Rhubarb triangle and other stories: Photographs by Martin Parr. Available at: http://www.hepworthwakefield.org/martin-parr/ (Accessed: 6 March 2016).

At 270 pages the book does not pretend to be a one stop shop for the history of photography and photographers but a reference book to use as a jumping off point for your research.

The book gives a brief biographical note on the photographer in question, a brief summary of their career as well few example of their work. The book also points the reader toward the photographers in question most prominent and influential books or projects for further research.

I feel that while studying for my degree this will be a book that I return to over and over again to jog my memories for those influential artists.

Bibliography

At it heart, this is a chronological collection of McCullins greatest work, from his beginning in the streets of London and the construction of the Berlin Wall through his iconic images of Vietnam, Biafra and beyond. It’s simply put together the only narratives is the introduction and an essay  Witnessing by Susan Sontag. It just lets the images speak for themselves.

The cover is a cropped version of one of he most iconic war shot of all time the Shell Shocked US soldier in Vietnam, and this alludes to treasures that are inside.

MUcCillins photography is compelling because is is close to the subject, the opening line of the introduction is “Don McCullin has the bottle.” And I feel this sums up his approach; I would say capra-esque, but he is closer than that there is an empathy within the images that he has produced. These is little of what could be termed voyeurism.

Sontag in here essay as the title suggests refers to the witnessing, how “upsetting photographshave the quality of being memorable – this unforgetable”.

The images in the book are all black and white; I feel that strengthens ever images – there are no distractions to the story being told with the pictures where it be a hurried shot taken while under fire in the Mekong Delta in 1970 or portraits taken of tribespeople in rural Indonesia.

Overall this is a powerful body of work and overpowering thing I will take away from this book is summed up by Sontag in this quote:

“A photograph can’t coerce. It won’t do the moral work for us. But it can start us on the way.”

Bibliography

As it title suggests it the book is somewhat of a manual in style, it is written in accessible drop-in/drop-out style introduces a style or idea, presents a renowned photographer who worked in that style and also illustrates this idea and suggested reader projects with examples of Norton’s work.

I’m torn with this book in that it gives good idea and pointers to the reader; I am not a fan of Gibsons work – he is far to traditionalist for my liking in this modern world. Street photography has to move on away from the Cartier_Bresson style that David Norton seems to advocate.

Having said that it is a great good as a reference with practical project based around “busy,”quiet,” ‘abstract” etc. as they say you should know the basics first before you start breaking the rules.

Bibliography