Martin Parr: Amazon.co.uk: Val Williams, Martin Parr: Books

Amazon.co.uk Review

One of the leading British photographers of his, or any, generation, Martin Parr presents a retrospective of Parr's 30-year career, a dynamic entirely appropriate to his wry, equivocal look at nostalgia and tradition. Suburban warrior from Surrey, he was one of the first to drag British photography from the realms of advertising, fashion or hobby to the pretensions of serious "art". A collector by nature, even a trainspotter, and inspired by picture postcards, as his superbly monotonous Boring Postcards series bear witness, this mildly obsessive characteristic is at the centre of his art, which through his books, exhibitions, television documentaries and most notably, his work for magazines and newspapers, is immediately recognisable, and influential, as Richard Billingham's Ray's a Laugh demonstrated. His themes are for the most part unwavering, yet ultimately, it's other people's taste that lights up his photographs.

Attracting critics as well as fans, including fellow Magnum member Henri Cartier-Bresson, who remains "highly suspicious" of Parr's photography, he has never flinched from his content, saying of it, "certainly my photographs have a critical bite to them. I knew I was middle-class ...". It is also something Val Williams is conscious of in her lively essays that accompany the image selections from his career, and which follow him from the North of England to Ireland, back to the Northwest, and then down to Bristol. From his early days taking snaps at Butlin's to his strongest projects such as The Last Resort, The Cost of Living and Think of England, he renders his subject curiously denuded, despite frequent heavy adornment. Of similar kitchen-sink, kitschy curiosity as Pulp explore in their so-English music, Parr is less concerned with the "ordinary" than with the life less ordinary, such as holidays or social occasions, at which we exhibit our most excruciating foibles. Interestingly, when he moves outside his native land, as with Small World, his pictures remain technically superb, but lose the intuitive third dimension which his engrossed Englishness provides when observing his own. Parr may divide the critics at times, but this tasty body of work argues persuasively for his provocative and accomplished take on life, snapped from the inside looking in. --David Vincent

Product Description

In this major retrospective, the whole of Martin Parr's career has been assessed and includes previously unpublished early work. His startling and original 1974 installation "Home Sweet Home", early black-and-white photographs of the people and places of Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire where he lived and worked in the 1970s, photographs from Ireland and Salford, and of course a selection of the very best images from all his published books including "The Last Resort", "The Cost of Living" and "Signs of the Times". With unlimited access to Parr's archives and quoting from extensive interviews, writer and curator Val Williams charts Parr's life and career, revealing insights into his influences and attitudes and setting him in a new context in assessing his importance as an artist. The book also includes illustrative photographs of Parr and the people and places of his career and a special appendix shows some of his many collections of ephemera from wallpaper to commemorative plates, lapel badges to souvenir models of Lenin and JFK.

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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful

A complete and fascinating review of Parr's work 18 Feb 2002

By M. Cockerham

Format:Hardcover

Unlike his many other books which concentrate on specific stories, this latest tome published so beautifully by Phaidon (as only they seem to know how) provides an opportunity to examine the man and his work in more detail, and across his whole career.

There are many who do not like Parr's style because at first glance it is invasive and uncomfortable, but it is precisely that which makes it so compelling. As an observer of modern life (especially British) he is without parallel, and this book will have much to offer everyone interested in photography and social documentary.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

Martin's visual extravaganza 1 Dec 2003

By Robin Benson TOP 100 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE

In the last chapter of this fascinating book author Val Williams says of Parr 'He is a cunning photographer, sidling his way into situations where he shouldn't always be, looking as ordinary as the people he photographs'. How true and this could well explain how he manages to take such interesting photos of people and situations.

This thick, chunky title gives a good cross selection of Parr's work, from the superbly observed black and whites of working class life in the seventies and eighties to the capturing, in colour, of the middle classes in the nineties. I think Parr works best when he photographs the British and is able to see and capture social situations that most of us miss. There are twelve colour shots of street scenes in Boring, Oregon, (chosen, naturally, because of the town's name and Parr's three books, called Boring Postcards though these have no connection with the place) and they are just like any other photographers vernacular work, if Boring had been in England Parr would have found some class differences to make the photos say plenty.

Author Williams writes in depth about Martin Parr and his work and with several hundred photos this book is an excellent visual biography of one of the best British documentary photographers working today. BTW, the back of the book includes a few pages of Martin's collection of ephemera, knick-knackery that has taken his fancy, a tin of Heinz Barbie pasta shapes, a set of Russian coasters showing trucks or a set of Spice Girls chip packets and more, I have a similar collection of things that have caught my eye over the years, is this a trait of creative folk?