This Past & Present exhibition looks at the views of the early photography from the mid-19th century. It has a look at the most exciting contemporary photographs and put them alongside historical paintings and compares and sees how they both relate to each other. It takes a in depth look at how photographers in the modern era use fine art traditions throughout their work and how they portray this.
The first painting i am looking was created by Thomas Gainsborough:
Mr and Mrs Andrews, 1750
The second is a modern day photograph taken by Martin Parr:
How the Gainsborough painting influences the Parr photograph.
This original has inspired this photograph in many ways, for starters they are both simply couples in the comfort of their own personal space, the top image being their own land, and the bottom being own house. Secondly they both portray a sense of unhappiness, with the couple having no emotion in the photograph & the couple in the painting with sad expressions. With the research i have done i know that the couple in Gainsborough’s image were unhappy as they have just lost a child (shown by the space on the woman’s lap where there is no paint) this shows the idea that something is missing. In both the painting and the photograph, they are dressed in clothes which portrays the wealth and the which they have at the time the painting & photograph was taken. The male in the Gainsborough painting is holding a hunting gun with a hound next to him which again shows the wealth they have because at the time this was regarded as a upper class activity, and if you look in the background of Parr’s image you can see corks mounted on the wall behind them both, again this shows that they are wealthy as they have these put on the wall to show people.
George Partington 