Boring Postcards USA
by Martin Parr
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Book Summary Information
Author: Martin ParrEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-03-01
ISBN: 0714843911
Number of pages: 176
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Book Reviews of Boring Postcards USA
Book Review: An intriguing art project.
Summary: 5 Stars
BORING POSTCARDS USA by Martin Parr has 85 pages. Most of the pages contain the image of a postcard, but a few of the pages are blank. When the book is open, the blank page is on the left, and on the right page is a postcard. The pages are non-glossy paper. Most of the picture postcards are from businesses and corporations, such as motels, factories, and shopping centers.
A perverted aspect of some of these pictures is that the most prominent aspect in the scene is the PARKING LOT. The fact that a parking lot is the most prominent part of these pictures provides us with a message about the incompetence of the photographer (and really tells us not much about the actual business). That is the source of the perversion. On the other hand, it could be argued that the prominent PARKING LOT provides the message that the business is big, successful, and powerful, and is able to afford a large PARKING LOT.
A few of the picture postcards show highways, e.g., in boring places such as Nebraska, Indiana, and Oklahoma.
Most of the images are truly boring. But from a perverted sort of perspective, the pictures are fascinating. WALNUT ROOM BUCKS RESTAURANT shows some wrinkled old people. The restaurant contains all the accoutrements of the up-to-date 1960s restaurant, that is, Formica and Naugahyde. The old people are especially boring, in view of the fact that they have white napkins spread over their laps.
PIKE VIEW MOTEL shows a dreary motel. One quarter of the page is a parking lot. Two 1950s vintage automobiles are parked in the distance. Half of the image is a bland sky. Other motel postcards include, LINOAKS MOTEL, NELVA COURTS, FRIENDLY MOTEL, THUNDERBIRD MOTEL, COSMIC AGE LODGE, and these depict motel bedrooms. A bed dominates the room. Near the bed are small tables supporting large lamps. The rooms are all unnaturally neat. The overwhelming neatness is perverted, in that it might remind one of a corpse in a mortuary, waiting for a line of mourners.
Other postcards are perverted for other reasons. JOHN F. KENNEDY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT has a reasonable image of the airport terminal, but the sky contains something shocking. The graphic artist who designed this postcard put a jet plane in the sky. The jet plane is in the process of landing. However, the angle of descent is an extreme angle. If the image was a real one, there is no question that the jet plane would crash within a half second.
More examples of perverted scenes arise from signs. What is perverted, is that the photographer and the restaurant owner really and truly believed that the postcard put the restaurant in a favorable light. But, in fact, the content of the postcard could do the exact opposite, that is, put the restaurent in a bad light. BLUE GRILL shows a shabby diner. The parking lot has two large potholes, each containing a huge puddle of water. On top of the Blue Grill restaurant is a huge sign reading, "FINE FOOD." Perhaps the sign is truthful, in that the food is merely "fine food" and is not something better, such as "great food" or "excellent food."
Also perverted is the postcard, THE VIRGINIAN RESTAURANT. This postcard shows the restaurant in the background, while the foreground features a large sign reading, "SPAGHETTI PIZZA." The way the sign is painted implies that one of the meals is called, "spaghetti pizza," and consists of a pizza pie covered with spaghetti noodles.
Please also note that Mr.Parr has a portfolio of photographs called, BORING, OREGON. Mr.Parr has not published this particular portfolio. However, any tourist could easily create their own photographic portfolio when visiting this town. All of the pictures are from a town in Oregon called, "Boring." The pictures include business with signs reading, "Boring Florist," "Boring High School," and "Boring Sewage Plant." The town of Boring, Oregon was not named because of any quality of boredom. The town was named after a German man.
Summary of Boring Postcards USA
Boring Postcards goes Stateside - 160 exquisitely dull postcards from America. In the original Boring Postcards Magnum photographer and postcard enthusiast Martin Parr brought together 160 of the dullest postcards of 50s, 60s and 70s Britain to make a book that was, paradoxically, both fascinating and extremely funny. It was one of those ideas that seemed so obvious that no one could believe it hadn't been done before, and it caught the public imagination in a big way. Boring Postcards was discussed everywhere from daytime TV shows to in-flight magazines, from The Times to the Time magazine. It was so successful partly because it was more than just a funny book. The very fact that such places and people were once considered to be interesting or beautiful enough to merit a postcard made us aware of the changes which had taken place. In effect, Boring Postcards was an alternative social and cultural history of Britain from the 1950s to the 1970s. Martin Parr subsequently turned his attention to the United States to produce Boring Postcards USA, 160 of the dullest postcards from the land of opportunity. Just as before, for a postcard to qualify as sufficiently 'boring', either its composition, or its content, or the characters featured, must be arguably boring, or the photograph must be absent of anything which might conventionally be described as interesting. The postcards in Boring Postcards USA include: 'Site of Proposed Larger Taconite Plant' (a field); 'The colourful rug near the entrance of the national offices of the American Baptist Churches' (a red rug); 'Sunset Travel Trailer Park' (some trailers); 'Pennsylvania Turnpike near the Philadelphia Interchange' (exactly what it says); 'Ariel View of the massive interchange complex of Federal Highways 1-75, 1-85, and I-20.' Once again, the design of the book reflects its contents by being at the cutting edge of dullness, sporting a neutral grey cover and captions in Helvetica, the typeface of choice for producers of boring postcards. Once again, these cards will provide not only a great deal of amusement but a commentary of how America has changed, a celebration of those places that have been forgotten by conventional history.You know those old postcards that show the local meatpacking factory in all its cinder-block glory or the sickening color scheme of a cheap '70s motel room? Well, here they are. Beginning with panoramas of highways in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and other U.S. states, Boring Postcards segues to truck stops, restaurants, motor inns, malls, airports, military bases, factories, tools, and automobiles. Every image is certifiably boring, whether by dint of a photographer's ineptitude (dead-on views taken from too far away) or the sorry state of corporate architecture and interior design. And yet, as earnest advertisements for the American Way of Life, they all radiate a sunny faith in the uniqueness and desirability of whatever they portray.
There's not a word of commentary in this book, but that part is up to you. Certain things begin to stand out as you flip through the pages. Like the always blue skies. (Positive thinking!) Or the potentially interesting details that are uniformly obliterated, thanks to those polite middle-distance views and the muddy qualities of cheap lithography. There's a weird tension between the blandly generic ("Fine Food" reads the only visible sign atop a low-slung white building) and the proudly local (according to the postcard caption, this is "The famous Blue Grill on U.S. 40, St. Elmo, Ill."). In its silently subversive way, Boring Postcards proposes that we look more closely at this hallowed form of marketing to see what it tells us about the values and standards of mainstream American culture. --Cathy Curtis
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