Last year I purchased the book ‘Minutes to Midnight’ by
Australian Magnum photographer Trent Parke. I had seen some of his work online
and thought that his images were quite stunning and dramatic, and I liked the
fact that he photographs Australia and it’s unique people and way of life. During
my current work on exposure for Assignment 2, I was reminded of Parkes dramatic
use of slants of light pinpointing people or shapes and revisited the book and
also online.
The book (Minutes to Midnight) size surprised me – it is
almost pocket size, and only has about 30 pages. The images are all black and
white, with little grey in between – so very dramatic use of the end members of
black and white. There is great variety in the images – from a horse
photographed at night using flash, to rain on a city street, movement and drama
in many images, and slight blur which does not appear to detract from the
mystic quality (for example the fruit bats flying overhead). The images are
full of stories and great character and are quite distinctive. They were all
photographed on a great road trip around Australia, and I wish there were twice
as many in the book!! Nonetheless, it’s great to hold in my hands and feel
transported to another place.
 |
| Trent Parke, from Stills Gallery website for personal study purposes |
 |
| Trent Parke, from Stills Gallery website for personal study purposes |
 |
| Trent Parke, from Stills Gallery website for personal study purposes |
 |
| Trent Parke, from Stills Gallery website for personal study purposes |
 |
| Trent Parke, from Stills Gallery website for personal study purposes |
Viewing Parke’s feed on the
Magnum website includes some of
his colour images, which have a similar feel to some of Martin Parr’s images I
recently saw at the Brisbane Powerhouse Museum (see my blog post
here).
Fantastic use of light and shade and dramatic colours. I was particularly taken
by the second image in the feed; ‘AUSTRALIA. New South Wales. Pacific Highway.
Motel. 2006.’ Such a bland sounding description (perhaps that’s thanks to
Magnum?) but a wonderful dramatic image of the front of a Motel with a child
playing and strong afternoon light with stormy clouds overhead. Even images of
shopping trolleys are composed neatly and cleverly. Common to many great
photographs I’ve seen lately is the use of strong colours and either
complementary colours or opposing colours in bold statements. I particularly
like the way individual people are picked out by light falling across a road or
through a train station onto someone – they are highlighted by the bright light
and it adds real dynamism to the image. Thinking about exposure – he uses the
whole spectrum very strongly, and in many images it appears that there is
clipping (or close-to) at both the highlight and shadow ends of the spectrum.
This leads to fabulous dynamic pictures.
 |
| Trent Parke, taken from the Magnum Website for personal study purposes |
 |
| Trent Parke, taken from the Magnum Website for personal study purposes |
 |
| Trent Parke, taken from the Magnum Website for personal study purposes |
"I am forever chasing light. Light turns the ordinary into the magical."
Trent Parke, Magnum Website
References:
Parke, T. (2005), Minutes
to Midnight. Paris: Collection Magnum
No comments:
Post a Comment