Project start up

As we did in 2007 with Edward Burtynksy, FotoFreo has again embarked on a major photographic project that will be a central exhibition for the Festival in March, 2012. 

Martin Parr arrived in Perth on the afternoon of Thursday, the first of September.

I had met him in Arles in 2009 and asked him to take on a project stretching along the west coast of W.A.  This was modelled on the one he had done for The Guardian newspaper where he had photographed the people in 10 British cities.  He had in effect painted a picture of these places by photographing the people.  I liked the idea.  My interest in Martin for this project was that he would come with a fresh eye, that of the outsider, and a trained and experienced observer at that, with no preconceived ideas about a place – no ‘visual baggage’, so to speak. 

Australians are essentially coast dwellers, and as such I was hopeful that this series of photographs would be something of a cross section of people living on the west coast.

When he got off the plane I thought he would be jet lagged, arriving directly from London, so I took him straight to the Esplanade Hotel in Fremantle.  We arranged to meet a little later for a bite to eat after he had ‘sorted’ himself out.  I was thinking, ‘early night’.  When I met him in the foyer he had his camera bag.  How I would come to dread the sight of that bag!

We wondered around to my place, about 100m away, to have a drink before our meal. On the way we bumped into a group of young women off to a charity function and Sandrino’s, also close by. Martin asked if he could come and have a look.  

After a quick drink there we were in the queue trying to get into a gig run by the local hospital. Martin finally talked his way in and he spent at least an hour shooting a very weirdly dressed MC.

And so it began, a relentless search for a ‘photo opportunity’, something that caught his eye, that struck him as interesting or unusual.

It is fair to say that this relentlessness proved to be the hallmark of Martin’s approach to his work. He quite literally did not stop until I put him back on the plane on the morning of Tuesday, the 19th of September!

The journey

The idea was that we would start in Fremantle then travel to Broome for the for the 40th Shinju Matsuri festival, and finally down to Port Hedland before returning to Fremantle, spending about five of six days in each place.

Fremantle, of course, I knew well and Martin was also assisted by Brad Rimmer and Graham Miller. They showed him around and made the connections. 

The locations included the Newport Hotel, Gino’s Cafe, Fremantle Markets, Tasty Express, Organic Markets, St. Johns Church, Flying Angel Club, Stella Mairis, the fishing boat harbour, Fremantle harbour, Fremantle oval (for a Derby), the netball courts on High Street, Hilton Bowling Club, the WAMM on Victoria Quay, Lo Presti, Franks Butcher shop, Culley’s Tea House, Six Chairs and quite a few more.  A great event was the arrival of a cruise ship.

Martin photographed people in the street, at work and having fun.  Icons of Fremantle included Mrs. Gelati and Mrs. Bafile, together with artists Theo Koning and Horatio Birdbath.

And of course, true to form, Martin started early and finished late.

On our journey north we were accompanied by veteran photojournalist David Dare Parker, or DDP as he is affectionately known.  David’s mission (which he willingly accepted, don’t let him tell you otherwise) was to assist Martin and at the same time document the project and shoot a video!  This, of course, meant that he had to work even harder than Martin! 

But it was worth it.  The outcome was a 16 minute video of the project which can be viewed on You Tube  -  Just Google Martin Parr David Dare Parker.

In my previous discussions with Martin we had talked about a name for the project and exhibition but we could not come up with anything succinct, punchy, catchy or really relevant to what we were trying to do. And I wanted his name in it and he didn’t.  Then, while we were in Broome, Martin turned and said, “Every time I ask someone to do something or make a comment, the usually response is ‘No worries’.  Everyone says it!  I think we should call the exhibition No Worries: Martin Parr.” 

 Perfect!

Travelling from Fremantle to Broome was such a complete change of setting in every way.  The contrasts were almost stark, even the weather.  A good time to be in the north of Western Australia, even if it was the end of the ‘season’.  We were also there just in time for the 40th Shinju Matsuri festival.

Broome proved to be great source of photographic material and very entertaining for me watching Martin at work.  Also, there were a few little adventures, including the road block out to James Point and moving the crocodiles. I got a kick out of seeing all the prisoners from the local lockup lined up to watch the Shinju Matsuri parade.

There was a nice ‘pace’ about Broome and the food was great.  His photographs will tell the story.

Port Hedland was something else.  Port Hedland proved to be a most interesting and intriguing place, a place people either liked or hated and we met plenty of both. You could hardly call it beautiful and yet there was an energy about the place. There were many memorable moments, including visits to the Pier Hotel (with a reputation of being one of the roughest in the West) and catching mud crabs with Tracey and Tub.  For DDP the highlight was talking to Martin about photo books.

For this part of the photo shoot we were extremely well supported by Kate Antonas, the regional manager for FORM – our major partner in the project.  Kate knew everyone and could open all of the doors, well almost all. 

Martin covered a lot of ground in Port Hedland and I think he probably found his visit there the most rewarding of his Australian adventure.

Of course the other outcome was that we decided to do   a book about the project with the title, surprisingly, No Worries: Martin Parr and to be published by T&G Publishing, the publisher of Brad Rimmer's marvelous book, "Silence". The book will be available for sale pre-publication at a considerable discount, so "watch this space" if you would like to order a copy.

When I went with Martin out to the airport, I noted that his camera was well and truly packed away. 

And that was the end of the photo shoot.