Martin Parr

Martin Parr – Studies in Manchester; first exhibition in York

Martin Parr was born in Epsom, Surrey on 23 May 1952. His early interest in photography was encouraged by his grandfather George Parr who himself worked as an amateur photographer, and in 1970, Martin started a photography course at the newly founded Manchester Polytechnic (today Manchester Metropolitan University). Following his graduation in 1973, he worked for three months for the Manchester Council for Community Relations and devoted himself to his first own exhibition, titled Home, Sweet Home, held at Impressions Gallery in York. Parr’s homeland continued to play an important role for his work even after his international breakthrough, with many of his motifs from Great Britain. He himself said that the British people fascinated him because of their diversity – and because he himself was British. 

Spaces for the ugly and beautiful in colour and black and white

Martin Parr initially focused on black and white photography and worked especially in natural light, but in the 1980s, had a radical change of style: Parr photographed in colour and – as one of the first photographic artist ever – with flash. The artist himself sees no great difference between the two ways of working: for him it is always a matter of creating spatial awareness. At most, one could conclude that his black and white pictures focus rather on positive aspects of society, whilst his colour shots have a more critical weight. Martin Parr has also received criticism for his choice of motifs: He makes fun of his models with his idiosyncratic subject choices, deliberately exposing them to public ridicule. Although Parr certainly concedes to conscious provocation through everyday clichés and extreme situations, he rejects this accusation and emphasises that his main concern is to depict the good and bad aspects of all things without prejudice. He puts the extremes into the picture without judging them. Since 2006, Parr has also been using digital cameras for this purpose, in which he particularly appreciates the possibility of being able to see each new picture on the display in advance. 

The search for the extraordinary in the everyday

With his distinctive visual language, Martin Parr blurs the boundaries between commercial, artistic and documentary photography and has thus influenced generations of young photographers. An essential component of his work is the tense waiting and attentive search for the extraordinary in the everyday – and the calculation of numerous failed attempts. He himself does not really know how to take a great photo, says the artist, not without coquetry. If he knew, he would stop immediately. Most of his pictures are not really any good, he says. Martin Parr has taken part in over 80 exhibitions in Europe and North America and published more than 100 illustrated books. He is also a passionate collector of optically unusual things, and owns memorabilia on Margaret Thatcher, Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. Photography and collecting are merely two different sides of documenting and complement each other. Parr’s artistic drive is curiosity – about the world, about the unseen, the unexperienced, the unusual. Martin Parr has received prizes and awards for his photographic work, including the Erich Solomon Prize in 2006, the Baume et Mercier Award in 2008, and the Sony World Photography award in 2017.