MARTIN PARR
MARTIN PARR RETURNS TO NIAGARA GALLERIES, MELBOURNE
A Day at the Races
If you fancy a day at the races with renowned photographer Martin Parr, don’t miss his
exhibition at Niagara Galleries, presented in association with Rocket Gallery, London
from 5 – 29 November 2008.
It could be said that Martin Parr is one of the great chroniclers of our time. Probably not
the grand and historic occasions of state, but more likely the stunningly ordinary moments
in an expectedly average day.
Parr travels the world finding every opportunity to document the commonplace with wit
and satire even – and perhaps especially – when faced with the glamour, wealth and
indulgence of the fashion industry, the art world or exclusive racing circles.
He was recently awarded the Royal Photographic Society Centenary Medal for his
sustained and significant contribution to photography. Also in 2008, he was guest curator
at the New York Photo Festival and the recipient of the Baume and Mercier Award at
PhotoEspana. Parrworld, an acclaimed exhibition of his own collections of various
objects, postcards, photobooks, photographs by international artists and his own
photographic work, opened at Haus de Kunst, Munich and will tour Europe until 2010.
Parr has been a member of the esteemed Magnum Photographic Corporation since 1994
and has produced, published, written and/or edited over 50 books, artist books and
limited collector editions of his work. He is represented in the numerous public collections
throughout the world including the Tate Modern, London; Museum of Modern Art, New
York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and the
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
By luck and/or carefully planned, organizational brilliance, Martin Parr will be in Australia
in early November to attend his exhibition at Niagara Galleries. That the Spring Racing
Carnival is in full swing is too good an opportunity to ignore and Parr will be attending both
the Melbourne Cup and Oaks Day to photograph the undoubted splendour that all
Melburnians know and understand as “a day at the races”. With a particular eye for the
bizarre, absurd, excessive, obscene and mundane, we expect Parr will find photographic
riches amongst the would-be rich(er) and famous fashionistas at Flemington.
With the support of Hewlett Packard, the upstairs gallery will be transformed into a studio
where Parr and his assistant, Conor Kilroe, will produce an instant exhibition – images
shot on the 4th and 6th will be processed, printed and pinned to the walls in time for a
spectacular opening night on Friday 7 November 2008.
To accompany the photographs from The Cup and Ladies Day, Parr will be exhibiting
large format works from the Luxury series featuring images of race days from around the
world.
Also on show will be Parking Spaces, an exhibition of 41 photographs documenting that
most elusive of things, the last available parking space. Parr has published this series as
a limited edition, velum bound photo book, but for the collector, 12 images can be
personally selected from the total of 41 from this series to be produced as an editioned
folio of photographs known as Valet Parking. Only 25 of these special custom editions are
available.