RawTalent

38 Spotlight 42 Performance 44 Moving Image 46 Music 50 CW.Poetry 52 New Media

Rising Stars
send us your work This section of the magazine is a showcase of some top talent to look out for. Its devoted to the creative individuals pursuing their dreams and making life that little more colourful and entertaining for the rest of us. If you would like to appear on these pages, send us your story or samples of your work: Decode Magazine PO Box 3120 Bath, BA1 1WB

Reader Competition
Win Think of England by Martin Parr

MARTIN PARR
BRISTOL BASED BUT WITH HIS EYE ON THE WORLD WORDS: JAKE HAYES / ALL IMAGES MARTIN PARR. MAGNUM PHOTOS

DECODE GETS UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL WITH A TRUE MASTER OF THE LENS %
PHOTOGRAPHS: MARTIN PARR!

To win a copy of this amusing and revealing visual slice of British life simply answer this Question? What is the name of Martin Parrs new book?

Answers to:
Decode Magazine PO Box 3120 Bath, BA1 1WB
Send answers by E-mail to: editor@decodepublishing.com closing date for entries: Friday, June 28th 2002

Trying to pin down exactly what Martin Parr does is a tricky business. Since he became a professional photographer over thirty years ago hes been hailed as the first person to bring British documentary photography into the professional era. Its a tag he dismisses as hype, although it earned him a lucrative position amongst the worlds greatest at the Magnum agency but not without some controversy. Henri Cartier-Bresson described his motives as highly suspicious, echoing the common criticism that he isnt so much documenting his subjects as laughing at them. What it actually boils down to is middle class guilt, that peculiar modern affliction that prevents Guardian readers from even looking a - dont say it - working class person in the eye, let alone making some comment on the way they live their lives. Although clearly middle class himself, Parr has no such qualms, as hes said in the past, Im buggered without my prejudice. He is equal parts cultural magpie and hard nosed journalist, traits which dont make him the easiest person to interview. Sitting in his perfectly positioned Clifton hideaway, I quickly begin to realise what it is to come in the crosshairs of his lens. Hes more interested in working out my motives for being there than deconstructing his brilliant career. Its not that he deliberately sets out to make things difficult, rather that his photographs are all you really need to know about Martin Parr.

The book and the Barbican exhibition (Photographic Works 1971-2000) are billed as a retrospective, does this

mean were going to see a change in your work, some big new ideas? Only in as much as everything before is going to be in the retrospective book and everything after is not, so yes! But Im still working away, Ive got another exhibition starting in London about people on mobile phones, and Ive been working at Cribbs Causeway for the last few months, photographing mothers and daughters out shopping together as part of Bristols 2008 city of culture bid, so theres no change in working practice Ill keep churning it out. Some of your work is now in the commercial sector, you do fashion and advertising stuff, does that take up a lot of your time? No, its still in the minority. Ive only been doing it for the last seven or eight years and I dont want it to take over. Im quite happy to reap the benefits of being very well paid for very little work. Looking at your body of work it charts the history of England as an increasingly consumer-led society. Is there any conflict in your mind when taking the capitalist dollar? Not really. I quite like the ambivalence of being asked by the advertising world to take pictures. I like that its slightly hypocritical. I may appear to be critical, but Im critical of myself and of all society. Im not going to stop going on an aeroplane because I do a critical job about tourism. Im a big consumer of aeroplane seats, hotels and the leisure industry. Were all hypocrites. The Boring Postcards series is your most celebrated project of recent times. Do you find that a little galling, considering its just a collection of other peoples

decodemagazine may/june

BEN COLE & CHRIS LUCAS

MEET THE NEW BROTHERS GRIMM INTERVIEW: GABRIEL SOLOMONS WORDS: ROY DELANEY

IM NOT GOING TO STOP TRAVELLING ON AN AEROPLANE BECAUSE I DO A CRITICAL JOB ABOUT TOURISM. IM A BIG CONSUMER OF AEROPLANE SEATS, HOTELS AND THE LEISURE INDUSTRY. WERE ALL HYPOCRITES. MARTIN PARR

IF YOU CAN CREATE MAGICAL THINGS THAT ARE REAL BUT NOT REAL, YOU GET TO TALK ABOUT WHAT IT IS TO BE ALIVE IN A WAY THAT PEOPLE CAN ACCEPT, AND IN A WAY WHICH ISNT TO GLIB.. BEN COLE

tedious photos. Not at all. Im delighted to have any successful project! And Im very pleased with it. I enjoy the idea of what postcards illustrate and how social attitudes change. So many of these come from the 50s and 60s, when England and other countries were rebuilding after the war. So it shows a utopian vision which looks a bit jaded with the benefit of hindsight. Although you deal with contemporary life, theres a lot thats harking back to Englands golden age. Do you deliberately try to find things that specifically relate to the past? Not particularl. Im attracted to traditional things, but Im also attracted to things very modern. I have two extremes of interest and my work has embraced them both at certain points over the years. Looking forward then, as many of the subjects in the Think of England documentary say, England is changing at an incredible pace. Hows that effecting your work? Its good, all change is good. The more things change, the more frozen in time things become. So Im all for it. Im for everything basically!
Martin Parr, Text by Val Williams is now available from
Phaidon 45. / www.phaidon.com This article was first first published by Jake Hayes in www.PopRiot.com.

FAIRYTALES JUST FOR KIDS EH? MEET TWO YOUNG DREAMERS PUTTING A MODERN TWIST IN THE TALE %
PHOTOGRAPHS: ANANDA CRESSWELL Since the dawn of time, stories and more specifically fables have been used to conjure up fantasy worlds which instill awe, wonder, fear and joy in readers minds. Fables often use analogy to teach meaningful lessons, which can be relevant to ages past, present and future. What a pleasure then to come accross a new series of fables, written and lovingly hand produced by two youngsters from Bristol. Decode met up with author Ben Cole & illustrator Chris Lucas to find out just what inspired them to resuccitate this slowly resurgent artform. Why fairy tales in this day and age? Well Ive written quite a lot of stuff including a couple of novels which are in that modern, contemporary, ironic coffee shop and lots of shags kind of vein. I always thought they were satirical, but you realise that some people just dont see that, and when I was writing them, almost as a release, some of these fables just sort of fell out, as a way of writing without having to be too ironic. But what is it about the canon of fairy tale work that inspired you to create your own? I read some fairy tales and was quite taken by the sophistication. If you are trying to say something about humanity, to feel able to take people to the end of the world and have them stand on

the edge of a cliff and look down and not be able to take them any further is a really powerful thing. If you can create magical things that are real but not real, you get to talk about what it is to be alive in a way that people can accept, and in a way which isnt to glib. So why did you feel the need for illustrations? When I wrote these stories I had always imagined them as illustrated stories. If youve got a fable it should have illustrations, and I think these stories are so much more because of Chris illustrations. Ive got all these high faluting ideals about being a conceptual artist, but I

like working with Chris because his works got a lot of depth and its accessible and thats a neat trick. Its harder to do that with writing. I think with the fables at least people think theyre beautiful, even if they dont understand them. Do you think theres a potential commercial market for these fables then? Were not going to make any money out of these books. Ive sold over a hundred and thirty of them and Id have to sell over a thousand books a month in order to pay myself a MacDonalds style salary. We are intending to do six more fairy tales, but Id rather do them as a single collection, because I think that it will be a stronger body of work.

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