parking guide, bored couples and funny tourists

currently I'm obsessed with this song by Charlie Winston:

a British photographer Martin Paar came to Prague and I attended his lecture. it was sooo interesting, he is such a cool guy! I loved his British accent & humor. he was talking about his photography, what he likes and what inspires him.

I found very interesting that he adores kitsch. he showed us some photos of his collection of things with a face of Margareth Thatcher or a collection of the weirdest things that have a face of Barack Obama. here are some examples...

can you imagine travelling all over the world and searching for the most ugly pieces to have such weird collections? I think it's hilarious.

but Martin Paar is not only a collector, in the first place he is a great and imaginative photographer. he is interested in unusual topics and he published many books. my favourites are:

• Parking Spaces - he was looking for the free parking places all over the world, then he made some kind of a parking guide. this idea is just amazing!

 (Brazil, Copacabana)

(Holland, Amsterdam)

(China, Shanghai)

 (Korea, Seoul)

• Bored Couples - are those couples really bored? photographs sometimes don't show us the reality and what is "behind" the photo.

(FINLAND—On a ferry between Helsinki and Stockholm)

(NEW BRIGHTON, United Kingdom)

(MAJORCA, Spain)

•   La Playa - Martin Paar hired the worst designers and this book has also many quality errors (for example there is no red color on some pages). martin paar just wanted the worst team to make this book!

•  Tourism - it's a very interesting topic, important for many countries. and Martin Paar captured some brilliant moments. as you can see, tourists are really funny sometimes :D

(ITALY. Pisa. The Leaning Tower of Pisa)

(HOLLAND. Keukenhof.)

  (USA. Arizona. The Grand Canyon)

 (ITALY)

 (GREECE. Athens. Acropolis)

Martin Paar is also a member of Magnum, you can find his portfolio here. and www.martinparr.com is his official website.

and this is one of my favourite photos ever...he said he saw this woman and started to follow her. and when she came to this painting, he made a photo.

 isn't it just perfect?