Connecting essay 3

Artist- Martin Parr

My image- Easter Friends

Parr's image features a depiction of a British day out at the beach which is a traditional event.  The bright and saturated colours used depict connotations of joy and happiness associated with holidays.  This is contrasted however with the fact that the image features several disgruntled looking women and young children being made to dip their feet in the somewhat grimy water.  Parr's photography is interesting as it provides a somewhat satirical take on British culture and allows us as a society to laugh at our own traditions and habits.

My image features a group of friends engaging in an Easter egg hunt whilst more engrossed in their phones than their company or surroundings.  This is interesting as it provides insight into teenage cell phone culture and the way that we are sometimes more interested in documenting our lives than living them.  The bright colours used as well as the saturation conveys happy tones to the viewer however this is contrasted to some degree by the subjects apparent disinterest.  This is important as it creates a sense of cynical humour in the image.  

It can be seen that both images use bright colours and heavy saturation to convey positive emotions whilst mainting subject matter which contrasts with this idea.  Parr's image also contains a traditional holiday whist mine contains an Americanism of a religious holiday demonstrating the merging of cultures in a modern society as a result of the fact that the world is more connected through the use of technology such as mobile phones and social media.