Sending famed photographer Martin Parr - a veteran people watcher - to cover this year's Glastonbury must have seemed like a no-brainer to the editors at the Guardian. And yet the resulting images are distinctly underwhelming - and I say that as someone who's usually a fan of his work.
Whatever you think of Glastonbury, it's incredibly photogenic - the performers, the punters, the general craziness that seems to reign. Perversely, then, you have to credit Parr for somehow managing to return with such unremarkable shots that do very little to capture the festival's unique character. They're certainly not a patch on those taken at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1969 and 1970 by his fellow Magnum member David Hurn.
Hurn was struck by how "incredibly human and enjoyable" the festival seemed, and Parr too appears to have been delighted by what he saw: "One thought that occurs to me is that I am seeing approximately a quarter of a million young people in one go. This is what British youth look like ... What a beautiful bunch they are." It's a questionable statement. Glastonbury is an all-ages festival, with many teenagers and twentysomethings priced out. If he really wanted to witness young people in their natural festival habitat, he'd be better off going to Reading and Leeds.
More baffling, though, is his evident frustration with how people behaved when a lens was directed towards them for a portrait: "There is a constant challenge to persuade the subjects not to smile. This response is so built into the act of photographing, it takes a real effort to stop smiling, especially as everyone is having such a good time." Why try to manipulate the reality? Why not just let people express their joy? It seems a very odd approach to take in the circumstances.
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