Llantrisant Working Mens Club 2009 © Martin Parr/Magnum Photos
Working Men’s Clubs, Martin Parr, Earlswood Working Men’s Club, Cardiff until March 14
Eminent UK photographer Martin Parr has been visiting working Men’s clubs around Wales for the last six months to try and capture the essence of a working class Saturday night.
The exhibition is one of four commissions for ‘Imaging the City’, a collaborative project between Safle and the University of Wales, Newport (UWN), and Parr has responded with his usual anthropological, and gently satirical take.
He has also has chosen to exhibit the work in Earlswood Working Men’s Club so visitors can experience club life first hand. The images are both an interpretation and an introduction to modern day working men’s clubs.
Llantrisant Working Mens Club 2009 © Martin Parr/Magnum Photos
“It’s the dancing that I really like," says Parr. "Regardless of age, when those familiar numbers are played, up we all get, shaking our bodies and waving our arms, singing along.
“Our mutual pop history is part of our DNA. Often bands bring their own lighting to dramatise the stage show. With whirling colours and flashing lights, the heady combination of four generations dancing together was, for me, the highlight of this project.”
The project was conceived by Russell Roberts and Emma Price and funded by St David’s Partnership. For more information on the exhibition go to the SAFLE website.
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