Quote:
"With photography, I like to create fiction out of reality. I try
and do this by taking society's natural prejudice and giving this a
twist."
Martin Parr joined Magnum Photos in 1988 and became a full Member in
1994.
Martin Parr
British, b. 1952
Martin Parr was born in Epsom, Surrey. As a boy, his interest in
photo-graphy was encouraged by his grandfather George Parr, himself
a keen amateur photographer.
Parr studied photography at Manchester Polytechnic from 1970 to
1973. To support his career as a freelance photographer, he took on
various teaching assignments between 1975 and the early 1990s. At
the beginning of the 1980s his work aimed to mirror the lifestyle of
ordinary British people, reflecting the social decline and distress
of the working class during the era of Margaret Thatcher. He earned
an international reputation for his oblique approach to social
documentary, and for innovative imagery. In 1994 he became a member
of Magnum after much heated debate over his provocative photographic
style.
For Parr, the moral atrophy and preposterousness of our daily lives
means we can only find salvation through adopting a certain sense of
humor. The banality, boredom and lack of meaning of modern times are
portrayed in works such as Bored Couples and Common Sense.
In 2002 Phaidon published the monograph Martin Parr. A large
retrospective of Parr's work was initiated by the Barbican Art
Gallery in London, and has since been shown in the Museo Nacional de
Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie
in Paris and the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg.
Parr was appointed Professor of Photography in 2004 at the
University of Wales, and was Guest Artistic Director for Rencontres
d'Arles in the same year. In recent years, he has developed an
interest in film-making, and has started to use his photography in
different contexts, such as fashion and advertising.
Education
1970/73 Photography, Manchester Polytechnic, Manchester, UK
Awards
1975 Arts Council of Great Britain Photography Award
Exhibitions
2002/04 Photographic Works 1971-2000 – Barbican Art Gallery, London,
UK; Museo
Nacional de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain; Maison Européenne de la
Photographie, Paris, France; Kunsthal, Rotterdam, Netherlands;
National
Museum of Photography, Copenhagen, Denmark; National Museum of
Photography, Film and Television, Bradford, UK; Deichtorhallen,
Hamburg,
Germany
1995/04 Small World – Explorafoto, Salamanca, Spain; Photographic
Festival,
Skopelos, Greece; Chapelle de l’Ancien Carmel de Tarbes, France;
Maison de
la Culture d’Amiens, France; The Photographers' Gallery, London, UK
2000 Autoportrait & Flowers – Galerie du Jour, Paris, France
2000 Think of England – Rocket Gallery, London, UK
1999 Food, Design for Living – Kevin Hall Gallery, Glasgow, UK
1999 Common Sense – Amsterdam Centrum voor Photography, Amsterdam,
Netherlands; Australian Center for Photography, Paddington,
Australia;
Rocket gallery, London, UK; Glasgow Film and Video Workshop,
Glasgow, UK;
The Photography Gallery, Dublin, Ireland; Schaden.com, K?ln,
Germany;
Galerie du Jour, Paris, France; Tetra Gallery House of Photography,
Poprad,
Slovakia
1998 Japanese Computers – Galerie du Jour, Paris, France
1995 Small World/From A to B – Centre National de la Photographie,
Paris,
France
1994 From A to B - 27 Welcome Break Service Stations, UK
1993 A Year in the Life of Chew Stoke - Village Hall, Bristol, UK
1993 Bored Couples - Galerie du Jour, Paris; subsequent tour
1993 Home and Abroad - Watershed Gallery, Bristol , UK
1992 Signs of the Times - Janet Borden, New York, USA
1989 The Cost of Living - Royal Photographic Society, Bath, UK
1987 Spending Time - Centre National de la Photographie, Paris,
France
1986 The Point of Sale - Salford City Art Gallery, Manchester, UK
1986 The Last Resort - Serpentine Gallery, London, UK
1984 A Fair Day - Orchard Gallery, Derry, Northern Ireland
1982 Bad Weather – The Photographers' Gallery, London, UK
1981 The Non-Conformist - Camerawork, London, UK
1976 Beauty Spots - Impressions Gallery, York, UK
1974 Home Sweet Home - Impressions Gallery, York, UK
1972 Butlins By the Sea - Impressions Gallery, York, UK
Collections
Getty Museum, Malibu, Ca, USA
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK
Kodak, France
Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
Seagram’s Collection, New York, USA
Museum of Modern Art, Tempere, Finland
British Council, London, UK
Irish Arts Council, Dublin, Ireland
Australian National Gallery, Canberra, Australia
Paris Audiovisual, Paris, France
Sprengel Museum, Hanover, Germany
Yokohama Museum of Art, Japan
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Japan
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Tate Modern, London, UK
Arts Council of Great Britain, UK
Union Bank of Finland, Helsinki, Finland
Museum for Fotokunst, Odense, Denmark
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
George Eastman House, Rochester, NY, USA
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France
Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, USA
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, USA
Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
Calderdale Council, Halifax, UK
Books
2006 The Photobook : A History, Vol II (with Gerry Badger), Phaidon,
UK
2006 Signes des temps, Textuel, France
2005 Fashion Magazine, Magnum Photos, France
2005 Martin Parr vu par..., Point de Vues, France
2004 The Photobook : A History, Vol I (with Gerry Badger), Phaidon,
UK;
(Le Livre de photographies : Une Histoire, Vol I) Phaidon, France
2002 Martin Parr, Phaidon, UK; Phaidon, France
2000 Think of England, Phaidon, UK
2000 Martin Parr: Autoportrait, Dewi Lewis Publishing, UK
1999 Common Sense, Dewi Lewis Publishing, UK
1999/01 Boring Postcards, Phaidon, UK; (Langweilige Postkarten)
Germany
1999 Sguardi Gardesoni, Chartra, Italy
1999 Flowers, Browns and Trebruk, UK
1995 Small World, Dewi Lewis Publishing, UK
1994 From A to B, BBC Books, UK
1993 Home and Abroad, Jonathan Cape, UK
1992 Sign of the Times, Cornerhouse, UK
1992 Bored Couples, Galerie du Jour, France
1989 The Cost of Living, Cornerhouse, UK
1986/98 The Last Resort, Promenade Press, UK/Dewi Lewis Publishing,
UK
1984 A Fair Day, Promenade Press, UK
1982 Bad Weather, Zwemmers, UK |