Langweilige Postkarten
A collection of hilariously boring postcards made before German reunification.
Edited by Martin Parr
- A collection of hilariously boring postcards made before German reunification
- A companion to Martin Parr's much-discussed Boring Postcards of Britain and Boring Postcards USA
- Provides a fascinating record of a post-war German landscape that is rapidly disappearing
- Includes views of high-rise housing blocks, city centres in Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg and smaller towns, autobahns and industrial plants
Hardback
210 x 150 mm, 8 1/4 x 6 in
176 pp
92 colour photographs
68 black and white photographs
ISBN 9780714840628
0714840629
Magnum photographer Martin Parr (b.1952) is a key figure in the worlds of photography and contemporary art. His acute eye for the subtle quirks and underlying continuity of human life is reflected in his avid collection of postcards gathered over 20 years.
In Langweilige Postkarten he presents the pride of his 'boring' collection: 160 postcards from Germany that take you on a daringly dull tour of its autobahns, airports, hotels, factories, shops, border posts, tower blocks and new towns. Presented without commentary or introduction of any kind, and with the original captions, the postcards are allowed to speak for themselves. All made before German reunification, they provide simultaneously fascinating and hilarious insights into German social and architectural values between the 1950s and 1980s. The two nations' special relationship with concrete and the functional modernist block is nostalgically and repetitiously celebrated in postcard after postcard, and the volume provides a revealing context for consideration of the work of contemporary German art and landscape photographers.
The work of Martin Parr bridges the divide between art and documentary photography. His studies of the idiosyncrasies of mass culture and consumerism around the world, his innovative imagery and his prolific output have placed him firmly at the forefront of contemporary art. A member of the international photo agency Magnum, Parr is an avid collector of books and a world authority on the photobook.
'Not to be missed: 160 views of Germany ... each more dreary than the next - and yet more comical. Langweillige Postkarten is not boring at all.' (Die Tageszeitung)