Martin Parr's Boring Postcards USA

Our first flip through Martin Parr's Boring Postcards USA book years ago made us laugh out loud. Not only was it amusing that postcards ever focused on Old Orchard mall in 1960s Skokie or on an Indiana toll road (pictured above), but we couldn't believe how many of those places we had actually visited. We just never memorialized the occasion with a photograph, let alone a postcard. We've certainly "escaped" to as many unremarkable destinations as we have wonderful ones, so we could relate to the ironic sentiment of boring postcards of boring places.

We recommend Boring Postcards as a staple on your shelf or on your coffee table, for some silly, dry, non-boring conversation when you have guests.

Check out more of Martin Parr's photography books (including a ton of work that focuses on travel, vacation, and what escapes mean to different types of cultures and classes) here.

(Re-published from an Aug. 14, 2007 post on AT:Chicago)

Comments (7)

I have this book and I love this. You may see a posting on my postcard collection soon...

posted by laure on August 14th 2007 at 3:43pm
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Postcards rock! Best way to send a real note (with actual handwriting) to friends, to infuse personality into stacks of mail.

posted by krister on August 14th 2007 at 5:49pm
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somebody tell me that you looked at the toll road postcard and were instantly reminded of the scene where sonny corleone gets ambushed in the first godfather movie. anyone? anyone?

posted by j i on May 2nd 2008 at 5:51am
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Wow. I saw that postcard above and pictured myself in the backseat of my parents car.

Now, it would be a much different scene with corporate parks on either side. And IPASS lanes.

posted by art on May 2nd 2008 at 6:02am
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When Martin Parr had a retrospective a few years ago, he had a reading room. As a follow-up to the boring postcards, he had taken a trip to Boring, Oregon and photographed everything. The show was in London, and I'm from Oregon. Quite a surprise to see my home state in that context, and pretty hilarious.

Boring City Hall
Boring High School
Boring Community Center
etc.

posted by brittanykate on May 2nd 2008 at 6:26am
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That's like Normal, Illinois.

posted by art on May 2nd 2008 at 8:40am
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Yeah. My store used to sell this book, and while the idea is humorous the results are...boring. Really. Really. Boring.

posted by Modfan on May 4th 2008 at 6:48am
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