A private space that lets events, habits and tastes show through. Text by Quentin Bajac.
Architectural photography is a genre seldom
practised by Martin Parr. Although architecture
is often present in his photographs, it is primarily as
a jewellery case containing frequently tawdry, glaring
human turpitudes and vanities.
To associate him with
Gio Ponti may therefore come as a surprise.
But that would be to forget how much interior design
and decoration are pivotal to this photographer’s
work. The man who in 1974 did an installation
christened Home Sweet Home, a reflection on
documentary photography via the recreation of a
kitsch interior, had already shown a sustained interest
in interiors, furniture and objects since June Street in
1972, featuring families photographed in their homes
after the manner of a Bill Owens; and he continued to do so right up to the series Sign of the Times, done in
the early 1990s, showing interiors of British middleclass
homes. So it makes sense to link him after that
with the architect-designer who had since the 1920s
attempted to reconcile a certain modernity with the
actual notion of ornament and decoration.
At Villa Bouilhet in Garches, in the suburbs of Paris,
Martin Parr’s images are surprising for their restraint.
They have none of the scathing irony ordinarily and
sometimes over-systematically associated with
his style. Instead, one is struck by an eye intent
on capturing a peace and calm, a certain harmony
of chromatic places and tones: of a space carved
by the autumn light that penetrates through large
windows. Fixing his gaze here and there,
Parr subtly conjures up a total space in which Ponti’s
neoclassicism is expressed unostentatiously, with
restraint. In a multitude of details, from the celebrated
wall lamps to the door handles.
But beyond that, Parr is, after the fashion of his earlier
works, keen to depict a real scene of life, a private
spot, steeped in human adventures, habits
and tastes. A living space, in contrast to the stiffly
cobwebby concept that might be conveyed
by a place charged with history. Quentin Bajac
Martin Parr. Villa Bouilhet, Garches
A private space that lets events, habits and tastes show through. Text by Quentin Bajac.
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- 20 February 2008