The sardonic chronicler of contemporary life, and one of Britain’s best-known photographers, has contributed to a major new exhibition focusing on the British seaside
“Let’s get it over with, then,” says Martin Parr, undoubtedly Britain’s foremost documentary photographer, when I remind him that we have an interview scheduled. Impatient and, it seems, rather disinterested, being interviewed must be as painful for Parr, as, I should imagine, is having teeth extracted.
He’s in Greenwich for the launch of The Great British Seaside, an excellent photographic exhibition featuring work by four esteemed photographers, looking at the key elements of a visit to the beach and an examination of how our many coastal resorts have altered over the years.
Running until 30 September, the exhibition at the National Maritime Museum features 102 excellent images – some classics and some never seen before, that chart the shifting view of the seaside between 1963 and 2017. It include images from the archival collections of Parr, David Hurn, Tony Ray-Jones and Simon Roberts, as well as new films and new work by Parr on the Essex coast, including landscapes from Shoeburyness, Walton-on-the-Naze and Southend-on-Sea.
Parr was born in 1952 in Epsom, Surrey. He studied photography at Manchester Polytechnic and then in 1975 at Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire chronicled the disappearing customs in the North of England, which has become a classic of documentary photography. However, the photographic series that really made his name was The Last Resort: Photographs of New Brighton (1986), featuring people at the seaside in the summers of 1983-85.
I ask him what made him want to become a photographer.
“I guess it was something I was taught by my grandfather initially,” he says. As a boy he would travel up to stay with his grandfather in Yorkshire during school holidays.
“By the age of 13 or 14 I knew it was what I wanted to do. There’s an affinity there for the whole process, and the ability for the camera to go anywhere, meet anyone, do anything.”
He admires a host of photographers: “People like Tony Ray-Jones, Garry Winogrand, Robert Frank, my colleagues at Magnum. I love the work of Simon Roberts and David Hurn – I’m very happy to be in their company in this exhibition.”
If you hadn’t been a photographer, what would you have liked to have been?
“I can’t imagine that scenario, so I can’t answer it. I always wanted to be a photographer from the age of 13.”
A lifetime devoted to photography has certainly paid off: as well as exhibiting internationally, Parr has been involved in making television, and documentary and other films. These include his own television documentaries with Mosaic Film. He was cameraman on the film It’s Nice Up North (2006) with comedian Graham Fellows (as his character John Shuttleworth). He took part in BBC Four’s six-part documentary The Genius of Photography, and was one of three judges on the Channel 4 series Picture This. He was also the subject of an episode of the BBC’s Imagine series, and has choreographed BBC idents between programmes.
I ask him what he thinks is the secret to his success.
“Hard work and stamina, doing what I do with passion over a number of years,” he says.
His career has diversified over the years. He has curated numerous exhibitions and festivals and has been a teacher, being professor of photography at the Universities of Wales and of Ulster, and a visiting lecturer at West Surrey College of Art & Design. He’s also, until recently, been the president of the world’s most prestigious photographic agency, Magnum. This is despite initial hostility to him joining the agency. Co-founder Henri Cartier-Bresson dismissed him as being “from a totally different planet”, while Philip Jones Griffiths pleaded to members not to admit him into the agency.
He’s also been attacked by critics who have said some of his work may be snobbish, or laughing at or looking down on certain sections of society.
“People say all kinds of things,’ he says. “I don’t mind. People can say what they like. I’m just showing things as they are, or as I see them. We’re so used to propaganda, things looking so neat and beautiful. When we see it for real, people are often somewhat thrown.”
Writing in The Independent, Karen Wright defended him, saying: “He was attacked by some critics for his scrutiny of the working classes, but looking at these works, one merely sees Parr’s unflinching eye capturing the truth of a social class embracing leisure in whatever form available.”
I say that, whatever critics say, it seems that many people don’t like being photographed.
“Well, there are people like that,” he says. “But generally speaking – not so much with the seaside pictures, because people not liking being photographed is more likely – but in other situations, meeting people, hearing their stories is all part of it, and people are often flattered by the fact that you are paying them attention, interested in their lives and taking their photographs.”
He has certainly seen a great deal of change during his long career, not least the collapse of income many photographers have made from selling stock photography.
“Photographers’ incomes have been decimated by the loss of stock picture sales,” he says. “My sales have gone down, but to a certain extent being with Magnum gives me more protection than for some photographers. But the thing that’s happened to our benefit is that the whole print sale thing has taken off. As stock photography has gone down, print sales have gone up, so it’s swings and roundabouts. Collecting prints has expanded, as the stock market has declined.
He sees the proliferation of photography today, with everyone taking photos the whole time on their mobile phones, as invigorating.
“I think it’s terrific news,” he says. “It means that photography has a bigger audience, there’s all these platforms for social media now. I’m all for it, you can’t have enough.”
The move from film to digital has of course been a gigantic change, for the good, according to Parr.
“The move to digital simply meant I could get more pictures. I don’t have to change the film every few shots. Having over 500 pictures on each memory card has given me a lot more time.”
The colours in his colour photographs are particularly deep, and many people may suspect they have been digitally enhanced, i.e. ‘photoshopped’. However, that’s not the case.
“My use of flash brings out the colour. People may misinterpret my work as being photoshopped, but everything is as is.”
Many people must assume Parr’s very English flavour doesn’t necessarily travel well – indeed, I saw one of his exhibitions in Zurich and my Swiss companion was bemused. But this generally isn’t the case. His work has featured in around 80 exhibitions worldwide, including the international touring exhibition ParrWorld.
“My market is bigger outside the UK than in, actually,” he says. “France in particular: in Paris I have more shows than here in the UK, by far. It’s great being an international photographer.”
Your work travels well?
“It’s not up to me to say, really. I’m not a boaster. I mean, we’re English, we don’t believe in boasting. But yes, I guess, I have more opportunities for work outside the UK than in. Slightly unfair question though.”
Why?
“Because you’re asking me to, sort of, boast, which I don’t do.”
Parr is also a critic and prolific collector of photobooks. He collaborated with the critic Gerry Badger to produce The Photobook: A History, which covers more than 1,000 examples of photobooks from the 19th century through to the present day. He also collects postcards, photographs and other items of vernacular and popular culture.
In 2014 he founded the Martin Parr Foundation in his hometown of Bristol. Advancing education in the art of photography, it houses Parr’s archive, his collection of British and Irish photography by other photographers, and a gallery.
Does he think he sees the world differently from most people?
No, not particularly. I just observe it differently but record what many people disregard or dismiss.
Has he got any particularly memorable shoots?
“It’s difficult to say, really.” he says. “I love photographing in England, particularly the seaside of course, and I’m doing a project now using a telephoto, and that’s been interesting. Those days in the mid-eighties in New Brighton were fantastic, but I can’t really isolate one particular shoot, it’s all one big shoot, really.”
So what makes a good photograph?
“If I knew I’d stop,” he says.
The Great British Seaside, photography from the 1960s to the present, featuring work by Martin Parr, Tony Ray-Jones, Simon Roberts and David Hurn, is at The National Maritime Museum until 30 September. Tickets: adults £11.50, children £5.00, concessions £10.50. Details: rmg.co.uk
Note: this article appeared in Black + Green Magazine, 2018