Martin Parr, the famed photographer who captured the mundanities and oddities of British life with humor and high-octane color, has died aged 73.
The Martin Parr Foundation shared the news today, stating that he had passed away yesterday at his home in Bristol in the southwest of England. “The Martin Parr Foundation and Magnum Photos will work together to preserve and share Martin’s legacy. More information on this will follow in due course. Martin will be greatly missed,” the statement read.
His legacy in Britain—and beyond—looms large. Parr was one of the first documentary photographers to embrace vibrant color, meaning his images were initially met with a mixed reception. He first rose to prominence with his divisive 1986 work The Last Resort: a series of images capturing working-class holidaymakers in New Brighton, Merseyside. With the bright hues and flash lighting that would become his signature, he documented the resilient masses of Thatcher’s Britain.
With his influence, documentary photography shifted from the gloom and grit of black-and-white to something more playful and vibrant. Yet while some found his work illuminating and provocative, others saw it as voyeuristic. “I realized pretty early on that controversy didn’t do you any harm,” Parr said. “And now, of course, it’s seemed to have all settled, and people are much more appreciative of that body of work than they were in the ’80s.”
“I make serious photographs disguised as entertainment,” he told The Architectural Review in a 2020 interview.
Born in Epsom, Surrey in 1952, Parr knew from the age of 14 that he wanted to be a photographer, being influenced by his grandfather, George Parr, who was a keen amateur photographer. He went on to study at Manchester Polytechnic in the early 1970s, where he met peers such as Brian Griffin and Daniel Meadows. Together with Meadows, he worked at the British seaside resort Butlin’s as a roving photographer—and it was there that he first came into contact with the nostalgic postcards of John Hinde, which would hugely influence his style. Their work soon came to embody the spirit of a new generation of subversive British artists, intrigued by regional communities and traditions and what that had to say about British culture more broadly. “You have to be fearless if you’re to be a photographer,” Parr once said. “There’s no time for being intimidated.”
From the mid 1970s and into the ’80s, Parr lived in West Yorkshire, and began photographing rural farming and religious communities. His widely exhibited black-and-white series from this time, The Non-Conformists, showcases a subtler and more observational approach. In 1980, he married Susan Mitchell, and they moved to the west coast of Ireland, setting up in Roscommon. Armed with a Leica M3 with a 35 mm lens, he published several works while in Ireland, including 1982’s Bad Weather (shot with an underwater camera), Calderdale Photographs (1984), and A Fair Day: Photographs from the West Coast of Ireland (1984). All, still, black-and-white.
In 1982, Parr moved back to England and settled in the northern town of Wallasey, where he made the change to color photography. He found his inspiration in Brits like Peter Fraser and Peter Mitchell, as well as American photographers like Joel Meyerowitz (leading his own crusade for color to be taken seriously), William Eggleston, and Stephen Shore. It was John Hinde postcards of working-class holidaymakers that served as inspiration for Parr’s seminal work, The Last Resort: Photographs of New Brighton, published in 1986.
He and Mitchell moved to Bristol in 1987, where he worked on projects including The Cost of Living (1987–1989), documenting the rising middle classes in Tory Britain; Small World (1987–1994), about tourism; and Common Sense (1995–1999), about global consumerism. Sunburned and ice-cream sticky seasiders and ladies gossiping in the hair salon, bingo halls and booze cruises, church fêtes and dog races, tourist traps: Parr’s lens was relentless.
In 1994, Parr joined Magnum Photos as a full member—but not without controversy. He won his place with just one vote. Magnum co-founder Henri Cartier-Bresson described him as “an alien from another solar system,” to which Parr responded: “I know what you mean, but why shoot the messenger?” He served as president of Magnum Photos from 2014 to 2017.
More recently, Parr expanded his practice to fashion and editorial photography, shooting for brands such as Louis Vuitton and Jacquemus, and working closely with Alessandro Michele during his tenure at Gucci on a series of campaigns and books. He shot a cover for British Vogue in 2020, and most recently, photographed actor Kathy Burke at home in London for the magazine’s November issue. Across his career, Parr published around 60 solo photo books and staged over 90 exhibitions worldwide, including the international touring exhibition ParrWorld.
The Martin Parr Foundation was founded in 2015 in Bristol, housing his own personal archive, works by other British and Irish photographers, and a gallery. He also worked to champion emerging British photographers, and served as a lecturer and professor of photography at several universities.
Through Martin Parr’s macro lens and ring flash, he captured British culture “under the microscope”—its oddities and idiosyncrasies seen in an entirely original way.
