On general release in the UK this week, I Am Martin Parr documents the successful career of the Magnum photographer and photojournalist. Since the 1970’s Parr’s informal photographs of people; at the seaside, in the park, in restaurants, on holiday, could be characterised as banal shots of British life, but what he has captured is without set pieces, staging or photo shoots. It is the essence of his subject. In an age when celebrity and notoriety increasingly became the subject of paparazzi, Parr focuses on the everyday – and often overlooked – lives of ‘ordinary people’.
Contrary to his photographs, Martin Parr doesn’t do small talk, which likely accounts for why he has used photography “to explore the chasm between representation and reality”. He took an early interest in photography from his grandfather, himself a keen amateur, and by the age of thirteen Parr knew where his career was set.
From ‘The Last Resort’. 1983-85 (Tate Purchase 2002, copyright Martin Parr Magnum Photos)
His photographs might make uncomfortable viewing today. Is Parr a voyeur, chronicling the lives of ‘working class’ people? The answer has to be ‘no’. The film shows Parr to be a mild-mannered gentleman, which is probably why his unassuming methods of taking photographs – observing other people’s activities, such as those of his street party celebrations during Coronation Week in 2023 – gave him access. People were happy to be photographed as a permanent record of the occasion. It’s proved a productive approach; his work is snapped up by museums and galleries worldwide. Notably, Tate Britain in London is currently exhibiting Parr in its show ‘The 80s: Photographing Britain’.
Many of Parr’s colleagues at Magnum – the international co-operative of leading photographers – appear in the film, to offer their views, and the film includes his fans who try to take a ‘Parr’ photo. And while his style is instantly recognisable, he maintains there is no such thing as a ‘perfect picture’, which is a cheering thought for the world’s amateurs – and sage advice for those repeatedly documenting their lives via ‘selfies’.
I Am Martin Parr is directed by Lee Shulman (The Anonymous Project) and, in the film, he took Parr, now in his 70s, back to the locations of earlier photographs. It was an intimate road trip from Parr’s home in Bristol to New Brighton, where the now-famous series of images The Last Resort was created. It allowed Parr to discuss his life through his professional work and personal memories.
On making the film, Shulman accepted it was a challenge. Parr is used to meandering, to following an interesting subject for his photographs. The film crew had to keep up with him and keep him on track. Or to coax him to stop a moment, perhaps eat an ice cream, to place Parr in the environment that is so well-documented in his work, reflecting his assertion that Parr “shows the way the world is, not the way we want it to be”. Now Parr is the subject, and Lee Shulman’s film superbly presents the photographer’s achievements – and the man – during a 50-year career. “With your heroes,” Shulman says, “you expect it to be so complicated. But with him, it’s not…there’s no ego.”
I am Martin Parr opened in the UK and Eire on 21st February 2025, and is currently on general release. ‘The 80s: Photographing Britain’ runs at the Tate Britain until 5th May, 2025. For more information, please visit www.tate.org.uk.
