34 Facts About Martin Parr

Martin Parr was born on 23 May 1952 and is a British documentary photographer, photojournalist and photobook collector.

Martin Parr is known for his photographic projects that take an intimate, satirical and anthropological look at aspects of modern life, in particular documenting the social classes of England, and more broadly the wealth of the Western world.

Since 1994, Parr has been a member of Magnum Photos.

The Martin Parr Foundation, founded in 2014, and registered as a charity in 2015 opened premises in his hometown of Bristol in 2017.

Martin Parr cites his grandfather, George Parr, an amateur photographer and fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, as an early influence.

Martin Parr studied photography at Manchester Polytechnic from 1970 to 1972 with contemporaries Daniel Meadows and Brian Griffin.

In 1975 Martin Parr moved to Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire where he would complete his first mature work.

Martin Parr was involved with the Albert Street Workshop, a hub for artistic activity which included a darkroom and exhibition space.

Martin Parr spent five years photographing rural life in the area, focusing on the Methodist non-conformist chapels, a focal point for isolated farming communities that in the early 1970s were closing down.

Martin Parr photographed in black-and-white, for its nostalgic nature and for it being appropriate to his celebratory look at this past activity.

In 1980 Martin Parr married Susan Mitchell and, for her work, they moved to the west coast of Ireland.

Martin Parr set up a darkroom in Boyle, County Roscommon.

In 1985 Martin Parr completed a commission for the Documentary Photography Archive in Manchester to photograph people at supermarkets in Salford, Retailing in the Borough of Salford, which is held at the archive.

Martin Parr photographed middle-class activities such as shopping, dinner parties and school open days, predominantly around Bristol and Bath in the southwest of England.

Between 1987 and 1994 Martin Parr travelled internationally to make his next major series, a critique of mass tourism, published as Small World in 1995.

Martin Parr was visiting professor of photography at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki between 1990 and 1992.

Between 1995 and 1999 Martin Parr made the series Common Sense about global consumerism.

Martin Parr joined Magnum Photos as an associate member in 1988.

In 2014 Martin Parr was voted in as president of Magnum Photos International, a post he held for 3.5 years until 2017.

Tate Modern's retrospective exhibition of Daido Moriyama in London included many Moriyama books loaned from Martin Parr displayed in vitrines.

Martin Parr collects postcards, photographs and various other items of vernacular and popular culture such as wallpaper, Saddam Hussein watches and prostitute advertising cards from phoneboxes.

Since the 1970s, Martin Parr has collected and publicised the garish postcards made between the 1950s and 1970s by John Hinde and his team of photographers.

Martin Parr was guest artistic director for the 2004 Rencontres d'Arles festival of photography, guest curator of the New Typologies exhibition at the 2008 New York Photo Festival, and guest curator of Brighton Photo Biennial in 2010, which he called New Documents.

Martin Parr was artistic director of the newly established Bristol Photo Festival, scheduled to open in 2021.

Martin Parr has been involved in making television, and documentary and other films.

From 1990 to 1992 Martin Parr collaborated with Nick Barker, taking photographs to accompany Barker's film Signs of the Times.

In 1997, Martin Parr began producing his own television documentaries with Mosaic Film.

In 2003 Martin Parr was the subject of and appeared extensively in the Imagine BBC One TV series episode The World According to Martin Parr, directed and produced by Rebecca Frayn, and hosted and executive produced by Alan Yentob.

Martin Parr was cameraman on the film It's Nice Up North with comedian Graham Fellows.

In 2007 Martin Parr took part in BBC Four's The Genius of Photography, a six-part documentary series exploring the history of photography.

In 2014 Martin Parr created "Turkey and Tinsel", a 60-minute deadpan and often hilarious observational video documentary about faux Christmas in small town England.

Martin Parr enables us to see things that have seemed familiar to us in a completely new way.

Martin Parr's signature is his ability not only to isolate the most evocative of human details, but to elevate such visual fragments to that of the wider societal signpost or glyph.

Martin Parr was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to photography.