Twelve photographers
MARTIN PARR
Born 1952, Epsom, UK. Lives and works in Bristol.
Martin Parr's budding interest for photography was encouraged since an early age by his grandfather, George Parr, himself a keen amateur photographer. He then studied photography at Manchester Polytechnic from 1970 to 1973. Since that time, Martin Parr has worked on numerous photographic projects. He has developed an international reputation for his innovative imagery, his oblique approach to social documentary.
At the beginning of the 1980s, his work essentially mirrored the lifestyle of the British people. For instance, in his book The Last Resort, which was published in 1986, he documented a popular beach location in New Brighton, near Liverpool. Showing the bathers, Martin Parr expressed the social decline and distress of the British working class at the beginning of the Thatcher era.
His unaccommodating, yet humorous and affectionate gaze focused on the rest of the world during the 1990s. Martin Parr examined in particular the apparent absurdity of mass tourism in his book Small World, published in 1995. The photographer astutely showed how, instead of experiencing foreign cultures, travelers are faced with an increasing homogeneity of lifestyle and customs.
Martin Parr joined Magnum Photos in 1994. His provocative and sarcastic style set a precedent in the history of the agency, as he pursued his work on the spiritual crisis affecting the middle and lower social classes of Western societies. With Parr, the moral atrophy and preposterousness of our daily lives can only find salvation through an eminently British sense of humor. The banality, boredom, and lack of meaning within our existences are portrayed with truthfulness in works such as Bored Couples, which came out in 1993, or Common Sense, published in 1999, among many others.
© Martin Parr / Magnum Photos
In the year 2000, the artist addressed the theme of contemporary narcissism and the sanctification of the individual by using himself as his subject matter in Autoportraits. Two years later, Val Williams completed a book on the photographer’s work, entitled Martin Parr. Published by Phaidon, this book accompanies a retrospective exhibition organized by Magnum Photos at the Barbican Gallery in London, the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, the Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris. This exhibition is currently on tour.
In recent years, Martin Parr has developed an interest in filmmaking, and has started to use his photography within different conventions, such as fashion and advertising. He was appointed Professor of photography in 2004 at the University of Wales Newport and, during that same year, he was also guest curator for the French photography festival Les Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d’Arles. He has just completed a false and ironic Fashion Magazine, published by Magnum Photos, in which he depicts the fashion world.
Exhibitions (selection):
1989 The Cost of Living, Royal Photographic Society, Bath, UK.
1995 Small World and From A to B, Centre National de la Photographie, Paris, France.
1998 Japanese Commuters, Galerie du Jour, Paris, France.
1999 Common Sense, Amsterdams Centrum voor Fotografie, The Netherlands; Australian Centre for Photography, Paddington, Australia; The Rocket Gallery, London, UK; Glasgow Film and Video Workshop, UK; Gallery of Photography, Dublin, Ireland; Schaden.com, Cologne, Germany; Galerie du Jour, Paris, France; Tetra Gallery House of Photography, Poprad, Slovakia. 1999 Food, Design for Living, Kevin Hall Gallery, Glasgow, UK. 2000 Think of England, Rocket Gallery, London, UK.
2000 Autoportrait and Flowers, Galerie du Jour, Paris, France.
1995-2004 Small World, Explorafoto, Salamanca, Spain; Photographic Festival, Skopelos, Greece; Chapelle de l’Ancien Carmel de Tarbes, France; Maison de la Culture d’Amiens, France; The Photographer’s Gallery, London, UK.
2002-2004 Photographic Works 1971–2000, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany; Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain; Kunsthal Rotterdam, The Netherlands; National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen, Denmark; National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, Bradford, UK; Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK; Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France.
Publications (selection):
Bad Weather. Zwemmers, London, 1982.
The Cost of Living. Cornerhouse, Manchester, 1989.
Bored Couples. Galerie du Jour, Paris, 1993.
Home and Abroad. Jonathan Cape, London, 1993.
From A to B. BBC Books, London, 1994.
Quel Monde! Marval, Paris, 1995.
The Last Resort. Promenade Press, Wallasey, 1986 and 1998.
Boring Postcards. Phaidon, London, 1999.
Common Sense. Dewi Lewis, Stockport, 1999.
Autoportrait. Dewi Lewis, Stockport, 2000.
Martin Parr. Text by Val Williams. Phaidon, London, 2002.
Fashion Magazine. Magnum Photos, Paris, 2005.
Martin Parr's budding interest for photography was encouraged since an early age by his grandfather, George Parr, himself a keen amateur photographer. He then studied photography at Manchester Polytechnic from 1970 to 1973. Since that time, Martin Parr has worked on numerous photographic projects. He has developed an international reputation for his innovative imagery, his oblique approach to social documentary.
At the beginning of the 1980s, his work essentially mirrored the lifestyle of the British people. For instance, in his book The Last Resort, which was published in 1986, he documented a popular beach location in New Brighton, near Liverpool. Showing the bathers, Martin Parr expressed the social decline and distress of the British working class at the beginning of the Thatcher era.
His unaccommodating, yet humorous and affectionate gaze focused on the rest of the world during the 1990s. Martin Parr examined in particular the apparent absurdity of mass tourism in his book Small World, published in 1995. The photographer astutely showed how, instead of experiencing foreign cultures, travelers are faced with an increasing homogeneity of lifestyle and customs.
Martin Parr joined Magnum Photos in 1994. His provocative and sarcastic style set a precedent in the history of the agency, as he pursued his work on the spiritual crisis affecting the middle and lower social classes of Western societies. With Parr, the moral atrophy and preposterousness of our daily lives can only find salvation through an eminently British sense of humor. The banality, boredom, and lack of meaning within our existences are portrayed with truthfulness in works such as Bored Couples, which came out in 1993, or Common Sense, published in 1999, among many others.
© Martin Parr / Magnum Photos
In the year 2000, the artist addressed the theme of contemporary narcissism and the sanctification of the individual by using himself as his subject matter in Autoportraits. Two years later, Val Williams completed a book on the photographer’s work, entitled Martin Parr. Published by Phaidon, this book accompanies a retrospective exhibition organized by Magnum Photos at the Barbican Gallery in London, the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, the Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris. This exhibition is currently on tour.
In recent years, Martin Parr has developed an interest in filmmaking, and has started to use his photography within different conventions, such as fashion and advertising. He was appointed Professor of photography in 2004 at the University of Wales Newport and, during that same year, he was also guest curator for the French photography festival Les Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d’Arles. He has just completed a false and ironic Fashion Magazine, published by Magnum Photos, in which he depicts the fashion world.
Exhibitions (selection):
1989 The Cost of Living, Royal Photographic Society, Bath, UK.
1995 Small World and From A to B, Centre National de la Photographie, Paris, France.
1998 Japanese Commuters, Galerie du Jour, Paris, France.
1999 Common Sense, Amsterdams Centrum voor Fotografie, The Netherlands; Australian Centre for Photography, Paddington, Australia; The Rocket Gallery, London, UK; Glasgow Film and Video Workshop, UK; Gallery of Photography, Dublin, Ireland; Schaden.com, Cologne, Germany; Galerie du Jour, Paris, France; Tetra Gallery House of Photography, Poprad, Slovakia. 1999 Food, Design for Living, Kevin Hall Gallery, Glasgow, UK. 2000 Think of England, Rocket Gallery, London, UK.
2000 Autoportrait and Flowers, Galerie du Jour, Paris, France.
1995-2004 Small World, Explorafoto, Salamanca, Spain; Photographic Festival, Skopelos, Greece; Chapelle de l’Ancien Carmel de Tarbes, France; Maison de la Culture d’Amiens, France; The Photographer’s Gallery, London, UK.
2002-2004 Photographic Works 1971–2000, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany; Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain; Kunsthal Rotterdam, The Netherlands; National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen, Denmark; National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, Bradford, UK; Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK; Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France.
Publications (selection):
Bad Weather. Zwemmers, London, 1982.
The Cost of Living. Cornerhouse, Manchester, 1989.
Bored Couples. Galerie du Jour, Paris, 1993.
Home and Abroad. Jonathan Cape, London, 1993.
From A to B. BBC Books, London, 1994.
Quel Monde! Marval, Paris, 1995.
The Last Resort. Promenade Press, Wallasey, 1986 and 1998.
Boring Postcards. Phaidon, London, 1999.
Common Sense. Dewi Lewis, Stockport, 1999.
Autoportrait. Dewi Lewis, Stockport, 2000.
Martin Parr. Text by Val Williams. Phaidon, London, 2002.
Fashion Magazine. Magnum Photos, Paris, 2005.