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In Praise of Leisure

Martin Parr will show 17 images from Luxury and all will be printed on canvas at around  250x170cm. About his Luxury series he says: "Everybody photographs the poor; I decided to photograph rich people". For four years Parr attended all kinds of events associated with luxury: fairs, competitions, exhibitions, sporting occasions and benefit galas all over the world. He introduced himself into those atmospheres with the intention of reflecting a particular stratum of society that had been so little portrayed by photographers.

Free time has increased and keeps on growing. It is demanded as an inalienable right. But it is not the same for all. Leisure is consumed, and consumption depends on means. The social stratification of leisure is inevitable. Going to the beach at Benidorm or going to the beach at Portofino. Flying a kite or flying a microlight. Floating on an air bed from Carrefour or sailing a Belliure. What does unify the act of leisure is the fact that people must totally give themselves over to it, as fully consenting individuals, freely and voluntarily. These activities will be performed once they have got their social obligations out of the way. Although, strangely enough, for many leisure has turned into another social obligation.

All the works that make up this edition of GETXOPHOTO have been chosen because they deal in some way with the concept of free time and leisure. Captivating on a visual plane, diverse in their subject matter and varied in the techniques employed. All united in their use of documentary image as a vehicle.

GETXOPHOTO is a photography festival that takes place in the main on the streets of the municipality of Getxo, in the Basque Country, and came into being in 2007 through the efforts of the collective Begihandi. The Festival is committed to exploring and experimenting with unusual formats and places of exhibition. This is one of its principal distinguishing marks. The places that will form a part of each edition are carefully selected, as is the accompanying curatorial proposal. This is not about adorning the town but about intervening within it in order to tell stories through specially chosen images, thereby proposing a specific dialogue with the spectator.

GETXOPHOTO wants to bring people different ways of seeing and not just to hang photographs as works of art to observed, but for them to spark off emotions: complicity, questioning, bonds between people and images, neighbours and visitors.