Val Williams Libri

This retrospective of Martin Parr (b.1952) showcases the wit and color characteristic of his photography while providing a serious assessment of his significant career. Parr's work reflects an urge to document social behavior with a tone of incisive bemusement. Val Williams, a distinguished writer and curator, examines Parr's later, most renowned work in the context of his entire career, illustrating how his striking photographs have captured political and social changes over the past 30 years. Initially starting in Britain, Parr has gained a broad international following, and this book delivers the long-awaited overview of his work. It includes previously unpublished early pieces, his original 1974 installation 'Home Sweet Home', and early black-and-white photographs from Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, where he lived in the 1970s, alongside images from Ireland and Salford. Additionally, it features selections from his published works, including The Last Resort, The Cost of Living, Signs of the Times, and Think of England (published by Phaidon). With access to Parr's archives and extensive interviews, Williams explores his life, career, influences, and significance in the realms of art and photography.

This project began with an archive and a discovery. Sara Davidmann and her siblings inherited letters and photographs from their uncle and aunt, Ken and Hazel Houston, through their mother, Audrey Davidmann. The letters detail Ken and Hazel's relationship, revealing that Ken, an optician in Edinburgh, was transgender, a fact that profoundly impacted their marriage and social interactions in 1950s Britain. Despite this, they remained together from 1954 until Ken’s death and had no children. The archive includes correspondence between Hazel and Audrey in the late 1950s and early 60s, documenting their private lives. While Ken publicly identified as a man, he lived as a woman at home. In response to the letters and family photographs, Sara Davidmann created a new series of photographs using various techniques, including analogue and digital processes. Reflecting on the vintage photographs, she noted the significance of their surfaces, where time and damage had left marks. This realization inspired her to alter the surfaces of her new photographs with ink, chalks, hand coloring, and other materials. Through series such as ‘The Dress’, ‘Closer’, ‘Dealt with in Scotland’, and ‘Looking for K/Finding K’, Davidmann explores the intersection of art practice and archival investigation.

Why are some photographs so much more effective and powerful than others? What Makes Great Photography showcases 80 outstanding photographs from the first daguerrotypes to today’s digital masterpieces and by photographers as diverse as Alfred Stieglitz, Diane Arbus, Ernst Haas and Don McCullin. Val Williams highlights the elements of each photograph that distinguishes it from its peers, such as composition, colour, texture and fidelity to subject, explaining just what it is that makes it so great. Her insightful text will open your eyes to the defining qualities of the key photographs of every period and genre, from portraiture to landscape and from photojournalism to the nude.

Kniha objasňuje a vysvětluje význam 80 slavných fotografií. Proč se staly slavnými? Co je na nich tak výjimečného? Obsah knihy je rozdělen na deset tematických celků, kde potom v každé z nich objevíme několik slavných snímků. Můžeme v knize najít fotografie z kategorie: práce, příběh, krása, vztahy, konflikt, pohyb, domov, fotografie z exteriéru (venkovní), nečekané momenty nebo každodenní život.