This month we lost another legend of photography, British documentary art photographer Martin Parr. His work had enormous influence on me at art school in the 1980s, realising my strength was in colour photography.
Since the 1970s, Parr’s work has documented people at leisure, especially his fellow Brits. His early work was black and white, as was all serious documentary photography at the time. Yet even these early works demonstrated his dry sense of humour.
In 1981 “The New Color” exhibition featured American photographers, including William Eggleston, Joel Meyerowitz, Jan Groover, and Stephen Shore. These vivid, saturated colour photographs had a great impact on the art world including Parr, who switched from traditional black & white to colour photography.
By combining his keen eye, sense of humour, documentary and colour, Parr had found his unique style. The signature Martin Parr style that he would be forever associated with, both praised and criticised for, featured in his breakthrough 1986 book and exhibition “The Last Resort“.
Along with his use of humour, Parr’s use of colour would prove divisive within the art community, and general public. People thought his work looked like snapshots, because they overlooked the layers within his images.
However, his use of colour simply shows what is there, not abstracting real life in black & white. Parr’s use flash on camera not only saturates colour, it reminds the viewer that someone is behind the camera. A documentary photographer is not discreet, a “fly on the wall”, especially Parr who is both over 6 feet tall, and used a large Plaubel Makina camera.
Humour can also divide people. Rather than poking fun at the working class, Parr is documenting the erosion of middle class Britain since Thatcher (and Brexit).
In his mid-thirties Parr applied several times to join the prestigious Magnum Photo agency. Half of the members threatened to leave if Parr was accepted, the other half said they would leave if he didn’t join, as he was the future. Chief amongst the protagonists was Magnum founder, Henri Cartier-Bresson, perhaps the most influential photographer of all time. Before finally accepting him, and his work, into Magnum, Cartier-Bresson said to Parr,
“We belong to two different solar systems“
To which Parr replied, “I acknowledge there is a large gap between your celebration of life and my implied criticism of it… What I would query with you is, ‘Why shoot the messenger?’”
Parr went on to become President of Magnum. He is credited with saving Magnum, along with Elliott Erwitt who also recently passed way. Parr and Erwitt are known for their art photography, yet it’s their commercial advertising work that proved financially lucrative for themselves, and Magnum as a co-operative.
Earlier this year the documentary film, “I Am Martin Parr” was released, and available to stream in Australia on DocPlay.
In 2014 he set up the Martin Parr Foundation to support documentary photography in Britain in Ireland. The Martin Parr Foundation gallery opened in 2017 in Bristol, with an exhibition space, library and facility to archive British documentary photography. The Tate made a short film about it, that best describes Martin Parr, in his own words: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlKrnYWXEK8
RIP Martin Parr.