Remembering Martin Parr, Honorary RWA Academician
A reflection on the life and career of Martin Parr by British fine art photographer and RWA Academician, Barry Cawston.
I am deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Martin Parr, who was, for many, quite simply the pre-eminent British photographer of our time. An inspiration both with and without his camera… his character, keen photographic eye and sense of humour worked in tandem to produce a vast body of work that continuously bridged a documentary and fine art practice. Whilst photography was for him 'a form of therapy’, it also became a mirror to our world in all its crazy complexity.
In 1986, Martin published The Last Resort: Photographs of New Brighton, the first photographic book that awakened me to the medium's potential. It gave many a representation of the world flooded with colour… a personal take on the familiar, it was totally uncompromising, stark but empathetic. It was a catalyst for a radical change in British photography.
Only later did I discover the work of American photographers Stephen Shore, William Egglestone, Richard Misrach and others that had inspired Martin Parr’s change from shooting in Black and White to saturated colour.
Martin Parr during a Private View at the RWA in 2023
In 1989, he produced 'The Cost of Living' an unflinching take on the upper echelons of society. It became clear no one was safe from his Sociological gaze. I am sure that every project, indeed every shot, was taken out of a deep desire to manifest his take on the world in his own language. Still, with each year, he inspired a growing number of photographers who followed in his wake, and he generously spent an increasing amount of time guiding others on their photographic journey.
In retrospect, you can see how his life path shaped his vision. After studying in Manchester, he worked as a photographer at Butlins and then documented local community events around Yorkshire, a far cry from his childhood life in Surrey. Martin's world was illuminated by his time up North. Discovering his work helped open up a new future for me with the world of photography at its heart, as I later realised, it had done for many others.
His style was radical and uncompromising, and initially, some found it difficult to quantify. After being admitted to the power house photographic agency Magnum by the margin of one vote, he ended up becoming Magnum's president for three years from 2014-2017. An extraordinary validation, following in the footsteps of none other than Henri Cartier-Bresson.
In 2004 Martin curated the Rencontres de la Photography Festival in Arles. An event I describe as the Glastonbury of the photographic world; brilliant, dynamic and magical - he was the perfect fit.
Throughout his life, he did more than anyone to promote photography as an art form. In 2014, he launched the Martin Parr Foundation here in Bristol, which houses his photo archive as well as his vast collection of British and Irish photography. It has become an international cultural hub for photography, and the city is richer for it. In 2021, he was a key figure in helping set up the multi-venue biennial Bristol Photo Festival, which has gone from strength to strength.
Martin Parr also had a deep love of the Photobook, publishing over forty books. 'No one contributed more to the rise of the Photobook as a popular medium over the past 20 years than he did, ' said the author and photographer Johny Pitts. A wonderful and important legacy in its own right.
In the words of Tim Jonze and Lanre Bakare in the Guardian, 'thanks to his sharp, anthropological eye, Parr’s work could provoke multiple reactions – humour, empathy, disgust – often within the same image’. It mirrored his own love/hate relationship with his homeland; Parr was a self-confessed “remoaner” who nevertheless loved the nostalgic past of village greens and local fairs. His work was not overtly campaigning, although he once told the Observer that ‘all photojournalists are left wing, you can’t do this job unless you care about people’.
He lived a remarkable life, travelling internationally for a critique of 'mass, global tourism'. Extraordinarily, the resulting series 'Common Sense', an exhibition of 350 prints, first shown in 1999, was staged simultaneously in forty-one venues in seventeen countries.
Martin Parr said ‘if there is any jarring at all in my photographs, it's because we are so used to ingesting pictures of everywhere looking beautiful’. He want on to share that ’we live in a homogenized world, where it's hard to get excited when everything is slick and professional. The interesting things are the dull things.’
Parr was a master at capturing chaotic, beautifully observed images of everyday life. In the age of Instagram and its’ missive of a ‘best life’, his vision will always remain a powerful antidote.
In the words of Banksy, another Bristol icon, 'Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.’ Martin Parr will be missed for his candid camera and equally his candid conversations.
Martin is survived by his wife, Susan Mitchell and a daughter, Ellen Parr. On behalf of the RWA, I would like to offer our deepest condolences and love to them at this time.
Barry Cawtson RWA
Image courtesy of the Martin Parr Foundation