Figures from the art and photography worlds have paid tribute to the UK photographer Martin Parr, an arch chronicler of British traditions and eccentrics, who has died, aged 73. A statement from the Martin Parr Foundation on 7 November said: “It is with great sadness that we announce that Martin Parr died yesterday at home in Bristol.”
Parr was considered one of the UK’s best-known photographers and one of the few practitioners of the medium who has developed a profile far beyond the industry. He also led the pack of documentary photographers who, for the past 50 years, have sought to explore and reflect the identity of the British Isles through what sometimes can appear—intentionally so—as happenstance snaps.
Parr studied photography at Manchester Polytechnic in the early 1970s and was at the vanguard of a new wave of pioneering photojournalists. His best known projects—highlighting aspects of class in Britain—include The Last Resort (1983-85) and The Cost of Living (1987-89). In 2023 he was selected as Master of Photography at the Photo London fair. Next year an exhibition of Parr’s work is due to open at Jeu de Paume in Paris (Global Warming, 30 January-24 May).
The Victoria and Albert Museum said in a statement: “Parr transformed British documentary photography with The Last Resort, a vivid, saturated portrait of working-class leisure in New Brighton. Its mix of irony, empathy and unfiltered observation challenged conventional approaches and helped establish colour as a serious documentary medium.”
Victoria Siddall, the director of the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London, said on instagram that Parr was an “extraordinary photographer of people and of life in the UK”. In 2019, the NPG held a Parr retrospective entitled Only Human that included the works Nice, France (2015) and Preparing lobster pots. Newlyn Harbour. Cornwall. England. Great Britain (2018).
“Although best known for capturing ordinary people, Parr photographed many well known personalities and his portraits, including those of Vivienne Westwood and Grayson Perry, are now part of the gallery’s Collection,” the NPG added in a statement. Turner prizewinner Perry said on Instagram that Parr was “a huge inspiration for me and a hilarious friend”.
Simon Wallis, the chief executive of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, commented on Instagram that Parr was a passionate and engaging advocate for the power of photography as a vital and evolving art form. “He spent untold hours with me sharing his wide-ranging enthusiasms embodied in his peerless library of tens of thousands of photography books.” Wallis adds that he “hugely enjoyed” working with him on his exhibition at The Hepworth Wakefield, The Rhubarb Triangle And Other Stories, in 2016.
The US photographer Joel Meyerowitz said on Instagram: “Martin was a legend in the world of photography, and his wisdom and visual humour will be greatly missed. Thankfully, his foundation will continue to steward his important legacy.”
Other high-profile names also paid homage. The Pet Shop Boys said on social media: “In 2002 we asked him to direct the video for our song London and he made a short film which, in its combination of urban pathos and quirky London street life, was instantly recognisable as his work.”
