-
-
The exhibition offers an overview of Martin Parr's work spanning from the late 1970s until today. Since nearly fifty years, his images have held a unique aesthetic and a caustic humor, leaving a lasting mark on visual cultures. His sharp observations of the contemporary world's vanities have been recognized as a major turning point for international photography.While his early black and white series from the 1970s laid the foundations for his photographic language – strong compositions taken on the spot, witty glimpses into surrounding communities, plays on contrast and oddities – he reached wider recognition in 1986, with the vivid colours of The Last Resort. This biting portrait of the British working class on holiday fed Martin Parr’s fascination for the beach, a substantial subject of his work. In the early 1990s, with his Small World series, Parr delved into mass tourism, a befitting embodiment of the new prevailing consumerism and sweeping global exchanges.Beyond the holidays, Parr has peeked into every aspect of our contemporary lifestyles. Small local shops, horse races, Sunday cricket games, and up until his recent photographs of village fairs from 2022, his work keeps transfiguring our seemingly banal existences, pulling a force from every detail to set the composition in motion.We must note Martin Parr’s will to report on the world as it is, with no filter and in all its absurdity, through striking images with multiple levels of understanding. With British wit and through an intertwining of social criticism and humour, his work remains as relevant after five decades.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Martin Parr was born in 1952 in Epsom, UK. As a child, his budding interest in photography was encouraged by his grandfather, himself an amateur photographer. He then studied photography at Manchester Polytechnic from 1970 to 1973. Since then, Martin Parr has worked on numerous photographic projects. He has left his mark on European visual culture, gradually establishing himself as a major international figure thank to his innovative imagery and oblique approach to social documentary.In 1994, Parr became a full member of the photographic cooperative Magnum, which he chaired from 2013 to 2017. He is also interested in filmmaking and uses his photographs in a variety of mediums, including fashion and advertising. In 2002, the Barbican Art Gallery and the National Media Museum organized a major retrospective of Martin Parr’s work, which toured Europe for the next five years. In April 2017, Parr received the Sony World Photography Award for his outstanding contribution to photography. The Martin Parr Foundation opened in Bristol the same year.In his series, Martin Parr questions the absurd banality of our daily lives, the vanity of contemporary consumer societies and the multiplication of flows and exchanges in a globalized world. His work is based on a recognizable visual style: with their bold composition and bright colors, lit with flash, his photographs are immediately identifiable. Today, Martin Parr’s images circulate throughout the world and show a desire to capture the world as it is, without filters, while mixing humor and social criticism through this typically English irony.
Martin Parr
Past viewing_room
