Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 26/01/2008
Monday
I flew up to the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead to do the last bit of filming for Picture This, a Channel 4 series about six young photographers competing for the chance to mount a solo exhibition (I was one of three judges). The winner was Elizabeth Gordon, a former alcoholic who made a set of photographs re-enacting her days as a drinker. They're a good example of what photography can do well: she shows great vulnerability, and that's very engaging. I chatted to her about hanging her show at the top of Baltic and then caught a train to London, where I crashed in my office in Clerkenwell (I've got a bed there).
Tuesday
In the morning I travelled to King's Lynn to give a lecture about my work at the College of West Anglia. I've been a photographer now for more than 35 years. I used to teach photography as a living, and I like giving lectures - I can give them standing on my head with my eyes shut if I have to. Then I went back on the train to King's Cross and met a young Italian photographer called Mimi who took part in a workshop organised by the photo agency Magnum last October. He's a very strong character who calls me "Mr Martin". He's been doing some great work in Dakar, Senegal. I like to keep in touch with younger photo-graphers. It's important that a younger generation comes up and questions the assumptions made by old farts like me.
Wednesday
Up early for an 8am meeting at my studio with a representative from Magnum. I'm the vice-president of Magnum's London office, so I spend a lot of time dealing with agency issues. Afterwards I visited two London framing companies with a box of prints that need to be framed for my exhibition Parrworld, which I'm doing in the Haus der Kunst in Munich in May. In the evening, I saw 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, a Romanian film about a clandestine abortion in a hotel at the end of Ceausescu's rule. It's one of the best films I've seen in a long time. It's quite depressing, but I only really like depressing films because I only want to watch films about real life. The trouble with Hollywood films is that they always have a pleasant ending.
Thursday
I flew to Munich to go through final details for Parrworld. The show will be similar in size to my retrospective at the Barbican in 2002: there will be about 160 pictures plus 500 objects and books and another 300 or so postcards. My profile is bigger in Europe than it is in the UK. The status of photography in this country is still low, although it's improving. Over lunch, I saw the news about the BA jet that had made a crash landing at Heathrow. My early evening flight home was cancelled, but luckily I managed to get on the last plane going to Heathrow.
Friday
I caught the train home to Bristol where I live with my wife Susie, who works for the charity Connect, which supports people with aphasia. I hadn't been home for four days, but that's normal for me - although this week I didn't take any pictures. (I don't carry a camera with me unless I'm shooting.) I spent the day catching up on emails and planning my trip to Brazil and Mexico in February to finish off a photographic project about the beaches of South America. Susie was away in Dublin and didn't come home until 10.30pm, so I had the house to myself. I made myself an omelette with some broccoli, and then switched on the TV.
'Picture This' is at Baltic, Gateshead (0191 478 1810), until Feb 10.
Interview by Alastair Sooke