Photo Martin Parr, Magnum Photos

Two recent entries have crossed my desk. One, from Martin Parr, who I interviewed some years back. Parr, who makes the banal seem lurid, and vice versa, turns his lens now on the humble parking space. Pictured at right is Mexico City, home of course to the famous “viene viene” boys, who hang around street corners and wave drivers into spots that they’ve secured with chairs, as pictured.

The description for Parking Spaces reads so:

“Between 2002 and 2007, Martin Parr photographed ‘the last parking space’ available in 41 countries – somewhere you could have parked your car, had you been there at the time. Using a compact camera, and driven by wanting to express “the individual frustration of finding somewhere to park, but on a global level”, this is the latest body of work in Martin’s methodical personal address to the issues of globalisation – the desire for a precious parking space being a banal unifier of the middle classes the world over.”

Meanwhile, the always interesting Mikael Colville-Andersen over at Copenhagenize has contributed Stripey Streetness, which, as the description notes:

“A splendid photo series about the zebra crossing as an instantly recognisable symbol in the urban landscape. 130 photographs from 10 countries celebrating that striped zone created in order to keep people out of harm’s way by providing safe passage across city streets. Painted bridges that guide the bustling masses of pedestrians through a city. The zebra crossing is not a destination it itself but it is an important tool in getting yourself from A to B. It funnels all types of people together into one space, for a few brief minutes of togetherness. We are strangers but while waiting for the light to change and for those dozen or so steps through the zone we are in a flock. This photo series shows city life and city people framed within the zebra crossing. People coming and going and waiting. All of them telling us stories with their body language. Wide strides or short steps. Hunched shoulders or head held high. The zebra crossing becomes a stage on which people around the world are brought together.”

Not sure if he’s got Shibuya in there…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 at 5:06 pm and is filed under Etc., Traffic Wonkery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.