Martin Parr

By the age of 14, I decided I would be a photographer. ‘It’s what I will do for the rest of my life, until I drop dead.’ I knew when I was very young. It was a definite decision. Don’t ask me why. I just knew it was the right thing. When Martin Parr was fourteen, his teacher wrote that he was ‘utterly lazy and inattentive’ in a school report. He went on to become one of the most successful and sought-after photographers in the world. Martin has published over one hundred photobooks on many different subjects, from seaside resorts to smoking, over his career. Now, for the first and only time, Martin has produced a book about himself, telling his own story, in his own words. This autobiography combines over 150 of Martin’s photographs – from his earliest snapshots to the work he is doing today – with his recollections and reflections on each image. We meet a boy growing up in suburbia, who collects obsessively and notices everything. We see him exploding into the public consciousness in the late eighties with a series of startling, ultra-saturated colour images of the British seaside – and scandalising the photography establishment in the process. We see society changing over the decades, from the demise of steam trains, through the opening of the first McDonald’s in Moscow, to the transformations of the post-pandemic world. As Martin shares his story, his distinctive voice delicately captured by his friend, the writer Wendy Jones, he also reveals his approach to work and commissions; his tricks for gaining access and getting the shot; and he divulges his particular passions: for crowds and queues, fetes and placards, bad weather on beaches, and more. This is the definitive account of a great photographer’s career, curating the work that has defined his life. By looking at the world through his eyes and his lens, we come away seeing Martin Parr – and ourselves – a little differently.

In 2012, the Eastman Kodak Company declared bankruptcy. That same year, a group of ten photographers from Magnum Photos—Jim Goldberg, Bruce Gilden, Susan Meiselas, Martin Parr, Paolo Pellegrin, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Alec Soth, Larry Towell, Alex Webb, and Donovan Wylie, plus Chien-Chi Chang, who documented the process in audio and video—established a temporary base of operations in Rochester, New York, former home to the once-dominant manufacturer of photographic film. Their goal: to create both a documentary archive of that city’s culture and landscape, and a photo-based experience engaging its residents; and to investigate a community of picture-makers comprised not only of Eastman Kodak, but also the Visual Studies Workshop, George Eastman House, Rochester Institute of Technology, and the citizens of Rochester. Over the course of almost three weeks, photographers, students, faculty, and residents worked together to create a visual record of the city and its people at a time of significant transition. Nathan Lyons, founding director of the Visual Studies Workshop, describes the result as “not only a major documentary project, but a celebration of photography within the city that had for years been a center of imaging technologies.” Upon arrival in Rochester, Martin Parr gave each photographer the task of assembling one hundred photographs to form the basis of an archive. Rochester 585/716 presents all one thousand images, together with commentary by poets Cornelius Eady and Marie Howe, art historian and photo theorist Laura Wexler, and photographer and educator Nathan Lyons. Five sets of the images were printed as a portfolio, each of which now resides in major private and public collections. Two artist proof sets were also created, one of which will be dispersed via the one thousand copies of this publication. Each individual copy contains a single loose print, selected at random from this additional set.

Martin Parr is the brilliant, understated, enigmatic British artist who transformed photography as we know it. As the world s leading documentary photographer, he has spent decades observing, ironizing, questioning, and celebrating modern life, and his photobooks take us from Scotland to Australia, Senegal to California, and everyone from his 740k Instagram followers (15% US) to former Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele and Elton John (who is a big Parr enthusiast having used a series of Parrphotographs as the backdrop for his Goodbye Yellow Brick Road tour). Parr is unusual a titan of the art world who is also beloved by the general public. In his bid to capture the brilliant, bittersweet absurdity of modern life, he transformed art photography with his compositions of deadpan, mundane snippets of life rich in humor, irony, and questioning. It was Parr who brought outdoor flash and color into the exhibition room (and was promptly expelled by Magnum Photos for doing so he later became Magnum s president). He has received numerous prizes and lifetime achievement awards all over the world. He also uses his platform to champion emerging photographers through the Martin Parr Foundation, and his work is, in turn, celebrated and supported by younger artists. The book features two master storytellers Martin Parr and the oral historian Wendy Jones joining forces to create a uniquely vibrant portrait of one of the world s best photographers. What follows is a journey only Martin could devise: a journey which, in one hundred carefully selected pictures and stories, will showcase the extraordinary depth and range of Martin s work; and tell the story of Martin s life, his practice, and his philosophy (as well as his collection of Saddam Hussein watches).

Martin Parr puts the world to rights in this comprehensive catalogue of five decades of his photographs, published to accompany a major exhibition at Jeu de Paume in Paris For over fifty years Martin Parr has photographed the absurdities of the contemporary world, from the frenzy of over-consumption and the ravages of mass tourism to humanity’s increasing reliance on technology and our complex relationship with the animal kingdom. By turns critical, satirical, surprising, and funny, Global Warning is published in association with Jeu de Paume to accompany a new major exhibition of Parr’s photography at the arts centre in Paris in January – May 2026. Richly illustrated with more than 175 of his photographs, from his early black-and-white work in the raucous holiday parks and sleepy supermarkets of rural England to his more recent colour photography of bustling tourist attractions and must-see destinations from across the globe, Global Warning offers a reinterpretation of Martin Parr’s work and position in a time of widespread global disorder. Featuring a tone-setting introduction by Quentin Bajac, director of Jeu de Paume, four further essays by Jean-François Staszak, Roberta Sassatelli, Violette Pouillard, and Adam Greenfield, experts in the fields of geography, sociology, wildlife conservation and urban design, put the selection of works into context and explore the important topics that seem immediately relevant to our everyday lives. Showcasing many of Parr’s most renowned images alongside rarely published hidden gems, Global Warning presents more than five decades of incisive visual commentary from one of the world’s most celebrated photographers.

This is a new and extensively revised edition of Martin Parr's classic photobook Small World. First published in 1996 Small World is one of the most popular and most important of Martin Parr's books. It has been in print continuously since its first publication. This revised and extended edition includes more than 80 photographs and features many of Martin Parr's most iconic images. It is a biting, very funny satire in which Parr looks at tourism worldwide, exposing the increasingly homogenous 'global culture' where in the search for different cultures those same cultures are destroyed. In a world of 'carbon footprints', global warming and climate crisis, the issues that Parr raised almost thirty years ago when the book was first published are even more relevant today. Whilst Parr's larger‐than‐life troupe of tourists appear willing participants in an omnipresent consumer culture they are also bemused victims - at the mercy of larger social forces and locked into their insatiable craving for spectacle. Small World's citizens become a symbol of Western society's prosperous freedoms, declaring their power and their rights to travel, to choose and to consume.

This special edition limited to 70 copies includes the book and one gelatin silver print signed and numbered by Parr. The picture is titled Glenbeigh Races, County Kerry, 1983. The print measures 20.0 x 29.0cm Martin Parr has been taking photographs in Ireland for 40 years. His work covers many of the most significant moments in Ireland’s recent history, encompassing the Pope’s visit in 1979, when a third of the country’s population attended Mass in Knock and Phoenix Park in Dublin, as well as gay weddings and start-up companies in 2019. It is difficult to think of country that has changed so dramatically in this relatively short space of time. Parr lived in the West of Ireland between 1980-82. He photographed traditional aspects of rural life such as horse fairs and dances, but also looked at the first hint of Ireland’s new wealth in the shape of the bungalows that were springing up everywhere, replacing more traditional dwellings. During subsequent trips to Ireland he explored the new estates around Dublin and the introduction of the first drive-through McDonald’s. Parr also looked at the North and documented how, after the Good Friday agreement, the Troubles became the focus of a new tourist boom. The final chapter of this book portrays a contemporary Dublin where start-up companies are thriving, the docks area is being gentrified and where icons of wealth and modernity – such as the flat white – can be everywhere. Ireland has also now voted to allow both abortion and gay weddings, developments that would have been unthinkable 40 years ago. The book includes an introduction by the acclaimed journalist Fintan O’Toole.

Martin Parr has been taking photographs in Ireland for 40 years. His work covers many of the most significant moments in Ireland’s recent history, encompassing the Pope’s visit in 1979, when a third of the country’s population attended Mass in Knock and Phoenix Park in Dublin, as well as gay weddings and start-up companies in 2019. It is difficult to think of a country that has changed so dramatically in this relatively short space of time. Parr lived in the West of Ireland between 1980-82. He photographed traditional aspects of rural life, such as horse fairs and dances, but also looked at the first hint of Ireland’s new wealth in the shape of the bungalows that were springing up everywhere, replacing more traditional dwellings. During subsequent trips to Ireland he explored the new estates around Dublin and the introduction of the first drive-through McDonald’s. Parr also looked at the North and documented how, after the Good Friday agreement, the Troubles became the focus of a new tourist boom. The final chapter of this book portrays a contemporary Dublin where start-up companies are thriving, the docks area is being gentrified and where icons of wealth and modernity – such as the flat white – can be everywhere. Ireland has also now voted to allow both abortion and gay weddings, developments that would have been unthinkable 40 years ago. The book includes an introduction by the acclaimed journalist Fintan O’Toole.

ToiletMartin PaperParr Book limited edition is a high-impact visual volume revealing the most iconic images from the prolific archives of internationally celebrated artist Martin Parr and the duo who created Toiletpaper, Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari. Martin Parr’s ironic, full color images combine perfectly with the irreverent and poignant wit created by Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari. The 120 vibrant back-to-back images included in this compelling volume are sensually and visually appealing, as well as reflecting reality. This book of the books shakes up our minds and leads us to move our gaze in multiple directions. This limited edition comes with a special cover and includes a surprise gift...

ToiletMartin PaperParr Book is a high-impact visual volume revealing the most iconic images from the prolific archives of internationally celebrated artist Martin Parr and the duo who created Toiletpaper, Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari. Martin Parr’s ironic, full color images combine perfectly with the irreverent and poignant wit created by Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari. The 120 vibrant back-to-back images included in this compelling volume are sensually and visually appealing, as well as reflecting reality. This book of the books shakes up our minds and leads us to move our gaze in multiple directions.

The ToiletMartin PaperParr wall calendar for 2020 will feature a new selection of photographs conceived by Martin Parr, Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari. The main subject of the new issue will be dedicated to animals.

During his long career as a photographer, Martin Parr has always photographed on beaches, particularly in the UK. He has often used the beach as a laboratory to experiment with new cameras and techniques. So far example, when he changed from black and white to medium format colour in the early 80s his first major project was about New Brighton, a run down seaside resort near Liverpool. In recent months he has started exploring the beach with the aid of a telephoto lens. This lens is rarely used in the world of art and documentary photography so it is a challenge to find new ways of using it. Often this involves incorporating the vegetation on the perimeter with the beach as a backdrop, both in and out of focus. So over his long career he has tried everything from a close up macro lens, a medium format wide angled camera and finally this latest offering with the telephoto.

Featuring works by some of Britain's best-loved photographers - Tony Ray-Jones, David Hurn, Martin Parr, and Simon Roberts - this book explores our changing relationship with the seaside over the last six decades and holds up a critical and affectionate mirror to a much-loved and quintessentially British experience. Published to accompany the 2018 National Maritime Museum exhibition The Great British Seaside: Photography from the 1960s to the Present, this book showcases over 100 photographs, including material from each of the photographers' archival collections, newly commissioned works, and never-before-seen images.

ToiletMartin PaperParr is a new, special edition of Toiletpaper published by Damiani. This unique edition celebrates a new suite of pictures presenting a back-to-back of images made in collaboration with Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari on the one side and Martin Parr on the other. The recipe is very tasty: the founders of Toiletpaper hosted Martin Parr as a special guest and asked him to form a dialogue with Toiletpaper images, coming back to them with a photograph from his archive for each image. The result is a rapid succession of images in which irony, subversion and provocation force the viewer to the impelling discovery of the next pair of images. And if you are not yet satiated by the end of this issue, you have only to start once more at the beginning.

Photography and Pop-culture buffs, get out your crayons and colored pencils! Martin Parr’s colorful and tongue-in-cheek photographs—his comedy of contemporary manners—have been transformed into a coloring book. Here is Parr’s affectionate and hilarious catalogue of human foibles—our bad fashion choices, messy foods, trashy souvenirs and the tourists who buy them, and all the often-overlooked silly details of our daily life—rendered afresh. The book’s eighty pages are packed with the most iconic and beloved Parr images, made into original drawings by Jane Mount, offering hours of coloring entertainment, as well as Parr’s witty take on the coloring book craze. Be inspired to create a new version of a classic Parr—sunbathers in Speedos, tea-drinkers and rainbow cakes, socks with sandals—and in the process, experience his vision in a new way. A riotous take on the eccentricities and peculiarities of today’s world, for all fans of Parr’s work, and an original contribution to the coloring genre!

For over 25 years Martin Parr has been taking photographs in Scotland. From the streets of Glasgow, to an island agricultural show on the Orkneys, Parr has built huge archive of photographs. Now for the first time these images are to be published in this upcoming book to co-incide with his Think of Scotland exhibition at the newly opened Aberdeen Art Gallery. This body of work is Parr’s largest archive that has remained unpublished and weaves together some of the expected visual iconography of Scotland such as highland games and stunning landscapes, but all given the Parr twist that makes the expected look so unfamiliar.

Martin Parr, one of Britain's best-known contemporary photographers, and President of Magnum, the world-famous photographic agency has undertaken a photo-documentary book project. Oxford is a collection of around 100 photographs documenting an academic year in the life of the university. They capture the day-to-day life of the colleges and University at work and play, and the colourful and arcane rituals that make it so distinctive. His photographs are accompanied by an extended afterword that draws on, and enriches, the photographic material and penned by Simon Winchester, OBE, the British writer, journalist and broadcaster. The very first photo-documentary of Oxford was created by William Henry Fox Talbot. A century and a half later, Martin Parr's new project pays tribute to the great the pioneer of photography, and coincides with the Bodleian Library's bid to secure his personal archive.

A fully revised and updated edition of Martin Parr's highly successful Autoportrait, first published in 2000. It features a playable 'labyrinth' puzzle on the front cover and includes a large number of new images taken since its first publication. The book shows the remarkable shift from analogue to digital photography that has taken place over the period.