photographsonthebrain:

christopherschreck:

People have been asking a lot recently, “Does anyone still use Flickr?” Apparently, at least one person does: Martin Parr. It seems that not only does he have a (private) Flickr account, but he also keeps up with forum discussions.

Case in point: The Hard Core Street Photography group has a discussion going about the 100 most influential photographers of all time. As the discussion turned to staged vs. spontaneous shooting, one participant mentioned Parr’s “Last Resort” series, claiming that many of the images were posed.

Surprisingly, Parr himself responded to the claim:

“I just stumbled across this [discussion] and can categorically state that no shots from The Last Resort were staged or posed. In the case of the woman looking at the camera, she did suddenly turn round to look at me, and it worked. Most times as you HCSP crew know, people looking at the camera is a disaster, unless it is a portrait. But then that’s the magic of photography it can really throw you, just when you think you know all the rules.”

I’m not sure how you’d verify the account or posting as Parr’s, but it’s pretty interesting if you can suspend your disbelief. Click to view the discussion.

He’s stopped by HCSP a few times over the years…