The Parrster

I went to Hebden Bridge tonight to listen to a talk given by Martin Parr. I loved it. He has the largest collection of Saddam Hussein watches in the world! He spent 6 years in Hebden from 1974 and took a shed load of images during this time. Most of the 400 strong audience were locals from Hebden (including a local and very sociable tranny!) and lots of them knew people in the images. An old chap sat next to me appeared in many of the photo's and when Parr mistakenly quoted the name of one his his subjects the old man corrected him, "is that you Frank?" Martin asked. I found it quite touching.

One of Parrs shots in Hebden of a fox doing a shit watching the hunting party that's hunting it. Frank is the leftmost man with a gun.

At the end of the talk there was a Q&A session. There were about 40 questions asked including one from a young boy. He asked, "what is your favourite photograph you've taken?". I smiled at the innocence of the question but I must admit I was extremely interested to know the answer. I asked a question, "Can I come to the front and take a photograph of you?"

"Martin Parr"