This year’s Master of Photography is the legendary British photographer Martin Parr, who presents an exhibition of new images taken in the UK, continuing a project that he has been working on for the past half century:
For over 50 years now I have been photographing in Britain and Ireland and have built a comprehensive archive of my time here, which has been further broken down into different chapters. These range from early black and white images of a mental hospital, to the Chinese community in Liverpool and Manchester. When I changed to shooting in colour, I started by depicting a working class resort adjacent to Liverpool, and subjects such as shopping in Salford and the middle classes of Bath and Bristol. More recently I have documented the establishment, with projects on Oxford University and the Livery companies of London.
Presented here at Photo London are recent images that have not been shown before, mostly taken very recently and show highlights from my ongoing documentation of the British Isles. Many familiar subjects are found here such as my long fascination with the British seaside and the ongoing documenting of agricultural shows and summer fetes. New discoveries are always being made such as the wonderful steam fair in Dorset or the half marathon in Bristol. I think of these images as an interpretation of the many mixed emotions I feel towards my homeland. It is almost a love/hate relationship, and I find addressing this is almost a form of therapy for me.
To compliment this show is a grid of images taken from my Beach Therapy project. With my ongoing fascination with the seaside this is a set of images taken with a telephoto lens, where I explore distant figures on the beach, usually with out of focus greenery in the foreground. Although each is an individual work, they become a fascinating grid when put together. Finally, there are half a dozen photo deckchairs, again shot on the beach, to give people a chance to contemplate the work they have just seen. —Martin Parr, 2023
‘Martin Parr: Recent Works’ leads Photo London 2023’s Public Programme. It is accompanied by the group show ‘Writing her own Script: Women Photographers from the Hyman Collection’ and the Photo London Talks Programme, which will feature a talk by Parr.
For further information about Photo London 2023 and to book tickets visit: https://photolondon.org/.
For information on the exhibitors at Photo London 2023 and to access press images, please visit the media kit.
PRESS CONTACTS
For high res images, to arrange interviews and to reserve a place at Martin Parr’s exhibition tour at the Press Preview on Wednesday 10 May from 9.30am, please contact:
Photo London PR representative Pickles PR:
Gair Burton: gair@picklespr.com or Christina Almeida: christina@picklespr.com
Relations Media, Catherine Philippot, PR representative for France: cathphilippot@relations-media.com
NOTES TO EDITORS
Martin Parr is one of the best-known documentary photographers of his generation. With over 100 books of his own published, and another 30 edited by Parr, his photographic legacy is already established. Parr also acts as a curator and editor. He has curated two photography festivals, Arles in 2004 and Brighton Biennial in 2010. More recently Parr curated the Barbican exhibition, ‘Strange and Familiar’. Parr has been a member of the Magnum Photos agency since 1994 and was President from 2013 – 2017. In 2013 Parr was appointed the visiting professor of photography at the University of Ulster. Parr’s work has been collected by many of the major museums, from the Tate, the Pompidou and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Martin Parr established the Martin Parr Foundation in 2017. He was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s birthday honours in June, 2021.
The Photo London Master of Photography is presented every year to a living artist who has made an exceptional contribution to photography. The previous recipients are: Sebastiao Salgado (2015), Don McCullin (2016), Taryn Simon (2017) Edward Burtynsky (2018), Stephen Shore (2019), Shirin Neshat (2021) and Nick Knight (2022).