Martin Parr presents an ordinary appearance while observing details that reveal broader cultural truths. His biography follows a common arc of mixed-class origins, uneven schooling, college life, early jobs, marriage, parenthood, career development, illness and recovery, and eventual grandfatherhood. His photography chronicles major historical and social shifts from the 1962 freeze and the last steam trains to the Troubles in Ireland, 1980s consumerism and Conservatism, the fall of communism, and the rise of global tourism and fast food. His later work records India’s transformation, industrial decline in the Black Country, post-apartheid South Africa, and rising global living standards.
If you saw Martin Parr and didn't know who he was, you would barely notice him. He is Mr Invisible and Mr Normal rolled into one, in his sensible jumper probably from Marks & Spencer and sensible socks and sandals. He has a neat side parting and neatly cut hair. He has a mild and conventional manner and a mild and conventional appearance. There is something of the naff birdwatcher about him. But do not be fooled.
His life is, in many ways, an everyman's life: he's born into a family of mixed characters and classes; he has a devoted grandparent; he is undistinguished at school perhaps not having the happiest of childhoods; he's a silly boy; he goes to college; mucks around, tries new things, gets a girlfriend, has some holiday jobs. He enters adulthood in an inauspicious way, works hard, sees something of the world;
Martin Parr's life is also a life of its century. He was there in the great freeze of 1962 he records it with his first photo. He's a grammar school boy who trainspots the last steam engines, then, a hippy student with long hair in the 70s. He's in Ireland during the Troubles, then, in the 80s, he's capturing fashion, luxury, consumerism and British Conservatism. He sees the fall of communism in the 90s, the rise of McDonald's and the explosion in international tourism.
#martin-parr #documentary-photography #consumerism #british-society #20th-21st-century-social-change
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