Martin Parr catches the cherry blossom season in Kyoto
Way back in 2000, I travelled to Japan to shoot the cherry blossom, but that particular year it was late, so I missed it. What I did instead was shoot the artificial blossom adorning food and consumables, and produce an artist book called Cherry Blossom Time in Tokyo. Photograph: Martin Parr/Magnum
This year, however, I was invited by Kyotographie to shoot tourism in Kyoto. I knew I would be there for the cherry blossom season.
My luck was in, as last weekend was the peak of the season and the weather was beautiful.
Everyone goes cherry blossom mad.
They just cannot get enough photographs of themselves, their kids, their pets and babies, getting as close as possible.
This often means literally standing in the blossom.
There is a magic in the air. The excitement of seeing these glorious trees with huge blossoms takes over the whole city.
In the evening people sit under the blossom and have picnics. Photograph: Martin Parr
After the weekend, it started raining and slowly but surely the blossom started to peel off.
And the long wait for next April's blossom began.
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BBC News
23-04-2025
- BBC News
Brighton bus photo exhibition by Martin Parr and JJ Waller
If you're catching the bus around Brighton & Hove this summer, make sure you grab a seat on the top deck. Bus stops around the city are being turned into photo gallery, only viewable from above. Over 65 images will be supersized and placed on flat bus stop roofs for show by famous photographers Martin Parr and JJ Waller. The Beside the Sea exhibition shows iconic British seaside scenes including ice creams, beaches and seagulls stealing chips! Waller and Parr, the artists behind the idea, said they wanted to do something different for this exhibit, which is part of the 2025 Brighton Festival. "Photography has the ability to be shown anywhere, and this is the most original location I can think of," said Parr."There is nowhere more British than the seaside" he said he was inspired by bus journeys with his mum when he was younger. "For her, it was a carefree break from suburban life, and for me, it was a window to another world."Organisers said the exhibition will visible from bus shelter roofs from 22 April with the photos also be displayed at the Hove Museum of Creativity.
New European
22-04-2025
- New European
Josh Barrie on food: If our food system is broken, Morrisons Gibraltar is a spindly cog in a dirty machine
In years past, I've no doubt it was a more agreeable locale. It must have been: Sean Connery got married there, so too John Lennon and Yoko Ono. I saw a charming(ish) town square and plodded through old streets that once hosted drunken sailors on leave, full of rum and raunchy intent. One of the most depressing places I have visited in recent years is Gibraltar. That silly rock, our dainty territory at the foot of Spain with a network of slippery tunnels and a Morrisons supermarket. Watching planes take off and land between mountains, on to and from a runway that stretches out into the Mediterranean sea, is a reasonable way to spend 15 minutes. And the monkeys, they're a laugh. I saw one snatch a Magnum out of the hands of an unsuspecting gentleman wearing an ill-fitting trilby hat. I also saw a woman who was turned away from her march up the hill because she had brought along her yappy little dog: the monkeys might have picked it up and thrown it off a cliff. That would have been a sight to behold, if not for her or the dog. Gibraltar's monkeys are drunk on fermented fruit, by the way. It grows in the trees on the Rock and falls on to the stone or concrete below. The Rock is really the region's only discernible attraction. Why visit the little Moorish castle when there are better ones to see across Andalucía? Why go to the botanic gardens when they're next to a car dealership and a restaurant that looks like a doctor's surgery? Am I being unkind? Probably. The aforementioned town square might have a handful of bars and restaurants worth visiting; I didn't stick around to find out. What I mostly saw were planes rise and fall, though from afar I could witness the grand Rock Hotel in striking white, lofty from a hillside, once so illustrious it was where Winston Churchill's daughter Sarah chose to wed her third husband. Today it has only four stars. The only five-star in Gibraltar is the floating Sunborn, dubbed the world's first 'superyacht hotel'. I imagine it will sail away eventually so as to up its prices from £200 a night. But that Morrisons. It is an odd and beguiling thing to see this bastion of affordable mince in a British Overseas Territory resplendent in sunshine; one of utmost importance economically, politically, geographically. I might allow myself a modicum of patriotism and proclaim it proudly: Gibraltar, where you may visit Morrisons in a T-shirt and shorts. Boat shoes, too, if you like. But let me tell you something strange: this supermarket is surrounded by a rich abundance of Spanish fruit, and yet imports a great deal of it from the UK. Not that we grow much ourselves – it would appear the fruit is harvested in Spain, packed and shipped to central warehouses back in Blighty and then sent back to Gibraltar to be sold. Don't believe me? A Morrisons spokesperson said as much when I asked: 'Approximately 50% of the fruit and vegetables sold in our Gibraltar store is supplied by local producers and sent straight to the store. The remainder is sent from our UK distribution centres, some of which has come from southern Europe.' OK, so not all, and wider southern Europe rather than Spain – or Andalucía specifically. But it stands true that at least some of those bright and beautiful Seville oranges must be making a tired and unnecessary journey. Look at the fine local produce: avocados, custard apples, mangos, pomegranates, lemons, limes and mandarins. Are these being picked and shipped, processed, and then shipped again? This notion depressed me no end. What a benign and futile world we live in. What a stupid, fruit-ruining scenario. If our food system is broken, Morrisons Gibraltar is a spindly cog in a dirty machine, whirring belligerently on a jut of dusty land, all at sea.
The Independent
22-04-2025
- The Independent
Photographers launch exhibition that can only be seen from top deck of bus
Two British photographers have launched an outdoor exhibition that can only be viewed from the top deck of a double-decker bus. Martin Parr and JJ Waller's Beside the Sea is a collection of 65 large-scale images that have been pasted onto the roofs of bus shelters across Brighton. The pictures, taken over a number of decades by the two acclaimed photographers, take passengers on a journey through the British seaside as they travel through bus routes in the city. They believe their exhibition, which is part of Brighton Festival and went on display on Tuesday, is the first of its kind. Parr, an internationally-renowned documentary photographer, said: 'I love the idea of showing images on a bus shelter roof – the last thing you expect when travelling upstairs on a bus. ' Photography has the ability to be shown anywhere and this is the most original location I can think of.' Waller, who was a street entertainer in Covent Garden before becoming a photographer, said he had been inspired to create a bus stop roof exhibition by his trips with his mother from the age of eight. He told the PA news agency: 'She would say 'we're going to go to the end of the bus route'. We would go to the bus stop outside our house, go to the end of the route and get off. 'I spent hours quietly looking at the world as a kid through the window. It was like looking through the viewfinder of a camera. 'This exhibition is an extensive one, with colourful and prestigious images from Martin Parr, but it is also about how people will encounter them.' The project involves 30 bus shelters, with vibrant vinyl pictures being pasted onto each roof. Photographs have been taken at classic seaside locations such as Blackpool, Brighton, St Leonards, Hastings and Weston-super-Mare, as well as Benidorm. Waller added: ' One of our objectives is that this opens up a new exhibition space, a new gallery concept. 'I hope that people will see it and think they would like to do it in their own towns. It is pioneering. 'Putting the photographs on bus shelters also means people who may not visit a gallery will have access to them.' Additional exhibitions will be displayed on seafront locations in Brighton and at Hove Museum of Creativity for those who are unable to access the top deck of a bus. Ed Wills, managing director for Brighton & Hove Buses, which operates 222 buses across a network of 73 routes, said: 'As the major bus operator in this creative seaside city, we are delighted to be showcasing seaside-themed photography from international photographer Martin Parr and popular local photographer JJ Waller. 'This exhibition gives our regular passengers the unique opportunity to enjoy an event from the Brighton Festival and gives an extra incentive to leave the car at home and take the bus.'
