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Cigarette Box

Cigarette Box

Artist (Epsom, England, born 1952)
Date2005
MediumLambda Print on paper
ClassificationsPhotographs
DimensionsImage Size: 106.4 x 157cm
Paper Size: 121.2 x 172.3cm
Frame Size: 109 x 160cm
AcquisitionPurchased in 2005 with assistance from the National Fund for Acquisitions and the Brownington Foundation and with income from the Webster Bequest.
Copyright© Martin Parr / Magnum, Courtesy Rocket Gallery (2006)
LocationOn Display - Gallery 18
Object numberABDAG014364
About MeBritish photographer Martin Parr has exhibited his work worldwide and gained an international reputation. This culminated in 1994 when he became a full member of the famous Magnum Photographic Corporation.

Martin Parr made his name with his use of lurid colour and banal subjects. His use of garish colours emphasised his comments on the more garish aspects of life. This technique was triggered in the early eighties by the work of American colour documentary photographers such as Stephen Shore and William Eggleston. He was also influenced by the British photographer John Hinde who photographed Britain's beauty spots in heavily saturated colour.

Parr's work often explores the lower and middle classes' relationship with consumerism. 'Cigarette Box', originally created for a fashion accessories shoot in Dakar, illustrates a 'street vendor' holding a board spilling over with bric 'a' brac. Parr paid the local man $20 to pose for the photograph and accessorised the $600 designer cigarette box with cheap objects. Parr manages to blur the boundaries between art, documentation and fashion here, as the dullest of objects in their arrangement and colouring take on a glamour far beyond their intention. He uses colour as an artist would, placing reds and greens, complementary colours, in varying shades side by side to offset one another resulting in a barrage of colour that assaults the senses.

Art Chat is an engaging series of short audio and video interpretations offering young people’s perspectives of artworks and objects in our collection. Alongside the image of this object you can now watch the interpretation of Parr's work by learners from Aberdeen Grammar School.

More About Me
Can you tell the picture was originally a fashion shot of a $600 cigarette box?
Exhibitions