I visited St.Peters House archives and explored photography books. Martin Parr’s Everybody Dance Now documented people dancing in different countries and years. I was drawn to the photographs as they captured people in the moment, throughout different decades which also show how music, clubs, surroundings, and fashion have also changed. I like how the images were raw and natural and show feelings of love, freedom and happiness. They also portray how dancing and music brings people together and each photograph makes me want to know more about the people in them. For example their names, ages, what are they doing now in their lives. The images are very colourful and over saturated which I feel adds to the mood and feeling of the photographs but he does include some black and white photographs which subtly docuements how times have changed. The images tell me that Martin Parr is a photographer who wants to capture how we live, society and real life. In the photographs I feel he is trying to convey how music and dancing makes people feel. I particulary like how atmostpheric the images are as you almost imagine what music they are listening to, the energy and spirit of the individuals in the photographs, which shown through their body language and facial expressions. As you study the photographs more you begin to notice different people, where they are and what they doing or feeling.
Interesting article about photography archives at St. Peter’s House! It reminded me of looking for materials for my project and finding useful resources on https://hausarbeit-schreiben.com/. Such archives really help to understand the history and art of photography better. Who else works with similar archives?