Finding that parking spot

may sometimes be the greatest point of your day... well when it happens anyway. When it happens, you may cheer out loud to yourself in the car but once your out of the car you will probably forget what just happened in the middle of what you drove there to do. This overlooked excitement was the subject of Martin Parr's book Parking Spaces. Yes, parking spaces. The book is a collection of photographs of that empty parking space that you may have spent hours looking for. They were taken during a span of 5 years, between 2002 and 2007, and in over 41 countries, from Argentina and Australia to the United States and Uruguay. Its probably an overlooked point in the day for a reason, and that reason is probably because it is a pretty pointless part of the day. But you can't deny that there has been that one time when finding that empty spot has resulted in utter joy. Martin Parr hasn't denied either for this book. He accepts its triviality but also acknowledges the preciousness rather comically.

The portrayal of that last parking space's preciousness is evident in the book. For one, its a book filled with hundreds of photos of parking spaces. Dedicating a book to anything sort of implies its importance in someway. The book itself is presented as almost a wedding album, "white and terribly precious, as befits the value of the last parking space" according to the Magnum website. The preciousness that the book portrays is very much out there by the way Martin Parr presents it, and its a preciousness that almost everyone can identify with.


The book may put a smile on someones face with its clever photography, but there is a bit more to it. Martin Parr has been working on projects that address the issues of globalization, and this project is no exception. With photographs of that last parking spot spanning over 40 countries, it becomes clear that the automotive obsession isn't confined to just the United States or just the western world. The search for a parking spot has become a common experience for people around the world.


Links
Martin Parr's Parking Spaces