Guy Martin came in to have a chat to us about our work and more importantly his new book ‘Parallel State’ which took 6/7 years to complete. Guy Martin started out always wanting to be photojournalist which became more apparent to him during the Arab revolutions when he nearly died whilst photographing here. This is when he realised that he was not using photography with any real personal purpose., this is when he decided to move to Turkey at the end of 2012.
The term ‘Parallel State’ was first coined in the 1950s as a term for an unofficial state like organisation, a concept Martin became interested in along with life in Turkey and the use of Turkish soap operas and movies. Many of the photos in ‘Parallel State’ were taken on the set of these movies and soap opera, giving him a degree of freedom with his work. These photos were often taken in between scenes, after the director would call cut as the actors would still be inn character etc Martin was able to create images which were staged but appeared to be ‘true’. Furthermore, Martin would ask movie extras to model for portraits.
Martin’s work shows a great depiction of politics, media and war in a country where a military government had just been implemented and how this affected what those surrounded by this change were able witness and digest, giving an interesting insight to those who are not so affected.
