From the archive
Nigel Atherton looks back at past AP issues
23 August 1997
‘AN ALTERNATIVE view of Brits by the seaside’ ran the sub-head on this week’s cover. Or, to put it another way, here’s a selection of Martin Parr’s latest pictures. Martin has made a career out of upsetting folk with his often un attering depictions of English culture, and he did it again by describing West Bay, Dorset, as ‘down at heel’. ‘Parr is already well-known for his perceptive, if rather brutal, observations of the British holiday-maker, which he began in the early 1980s using a 6x7 camera with colour lm and ll-in ash,’ explained our writer. ‘The West Bay pictures mark a change in technique for Parr, who has abandoned medium format for a 35mm Nikon complete with macro lens and ring ash.’ In addition to his choice of a Nikon F-801 and macro lens, Parr also switched
lm to Agfa’s super-saturated Ultra 50 colour print lm. Not that the locals cared about such details. ‘I’ve been told that I’m not portraying the real West Bay of bobbing boats on the water,’ said Parr. ‘I would argue that my pictures show more of the real West Bay, but who’s to say what’s real and what’s not real?’ Also in this week’s issue, we revealed the winner of the latest Duke of Edinburgh Award Bursary – an annual one-year xed-term job, with salary and company car paid for by Fuji lm, which was offered to a young photographer to document the work of the D of E. With AP as the media partner I was on the panel that interviewed the candidates and selected the successful applicant every year. It was a wonderful opportunity for a young talent and it would be lovely to see something like that being offered again now.