In partnership with The Anonymous Project and Magnum Photos, The Institut pour la photographie presents an original exhibition based on the book, Déjà View, by Martin Parr and Lee Shulman, published by Textuel in 2021.
Colour photography developed in the 1930s with slides and was initially an amateur activity. The Anonymous Project’s large collection of over 500,000 amateur colour slides bears witness to this craze which became extremely popular in the 1940s. However, it was not until the 1970s that colour photography was recognised by the professional community for its aesthetic qualities. The British photographer, Martin Parr, born in 1952, is a pioneer in this field.
For more than fifty years, Parr has, with a certain degree of irony, depicted contemporary society through everyday life, in particular using the effects of framing and saturated colours characteristic of early colour photographs. Holidays or leisure activities, the privileged setting for amateur shots, are among the photographer’s favourite subjects.
This visual conversation between Parr’s photographs and the Anonymous Project’s amateur photographers reveals a sharp eye and a deep understanding of our society. Parr’s images give us an impression of “déjà vu” and invite us to question our habits.
