On my Bookshelf | Martin Parr – Early Works

On my Bookshelf

In this column, I occasionally present a photo book that is close to my heart. It is not – or not necessarily – a new publication. It is simply a book that somehow fell into my hands and that I would like to recommend to others. And yes – of course it’s on my bookshelf.

It’s a bit of a continuation of my “Photo book of the month” column – just not necessarily as regular as before. And I’ve generally made the column a bit shorter and tighter. I hope you’ll enjoy it!

Prologue

The presentation of my book today is marked by a deep sadness. On 6 December 2025, Martin Parr passed away. The world has lost one of the greatest and most influential contemporary photographers of recent decades. It is a truly profound loss.

Martin Parr needs little introduction to a photography audience, but I will briefly introduce him nonetheless. He became renowned for his distinctive, humorous, and ironic view of the world—particularly of human behavior. He was especially drawn to travel and tourism, and to their sometimes bizarre excesses.

At the same time, he paid close attention to the everyday lives of people in his homeland, Great Britain. His most famous work in this vein is undoubtedly The Last Resort. I own and love this book, but it is not the Martin Parr I want to show you today.

Instead, I would like to introduce an earlier Martin Parr—one that perhaps fewer people know well. That is why I chose the book Early Works.

About the Photographer | Martin Parr

Martin Parr was a British photographer who was born in Epsom, Surrey, in 1952. He was supposedly inspired by his grandfather, who was an enthusiastic amateur photographer, and from a young age Parr already knew he wanted to make photography his career. He studied photography at Manchester Polytechnic from 1970 to 1973. After that, he worked as a freelance photographer while also continuing to lecture and teach.

During his first 20 years as a photographer, Parr built up a strong reputation and became fairly well known, especially for his social documentary work. Still, his acceptance as a full member of the Magnum photo agency in 1994 was a close call and quite controversial. Some people within the agency even campaigned against him, arguing that his style was too provocative and that it made fun of the people he photographed. Despite all that, Parr later went on to serve as president of Magnum from 2013 to 2017.

Martin Parr first worked mainly in northern England and later, from 1980, in Ireland, where he moved for a short time with his wife. Like most “serious” photographers at the time, he started out shooting only in black and white.

In 1982, the couple moved to Wallasey in England, and that’s when Parr switched permanently to color photography. Between 1982 and 1985, he took the photos for his well-known series Last Resort. Then, in 1987, the family—now with a daughter—moved to Bristol. In the years that followed, he went on to create countless projects on topics like the English working and middle classes, global consumer culture, mass tourism, and many other issues—most of them focused on social life and everyday behavior.

Parr lived in Bristol until the end of his life in December 2025.

Work and legacy

Trying to list even a small portion of Parr’s projects, books, or exhibitions is almost impossible. It’s fair to say he was one of the most prolific, and maybe even most obsessive, photographers of his generation. He published more than 140 books himself and edited another 30 on top of that.

The danger with photography is that it looks very easy but in fact, it’s a very difficult medium to really excel well in because basically, people don’t work hard enough – they’re lazy. Don’t be lazy!

Martin Parr

Parr was also an obsessive collector, especially when it came to photography books. His personal collection is said to include around 13,000 volumes.

Martin Parr Foundation (MPF)

In 2014, he set up the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol, UK. The foundation supports emerging, established, and often overlooked photographers who focus on Britain and Ireland in their work. It runs a program of events, workshops, and exhibitions in its own gallery and event space.

The foundation also has a growing collection of important photobooks, book designs, prints, magazines, and Martin Parr’s own archive. Overall, it aims to make photography interesting and accessible to everyone, while also reflecting the diversity of British and Irish culture.

About the Photo Book | Early Works

Early Works, first published in 2019, brings together 103 photographs from Martin Parr’s formative years, spanning 1970 to 1984, across 144 pages. The collection consists entirely of black-and-white images, most of them taken in northern England and Ireland. Many of these photographs are previously unpublished, while a small number will be familiar to readers from Bad Weather, Parr’s first book, released in 1982.

If you leaf through this book with a reasonable familiarity with Martin Parr’s work, it can feel strange at first. The vivid colours so characteristic of his style are, of course, absent, and some of the photographs aren’t ones you’d immediately associate with Parr. There are cityscapes of what at first glance seems like simply gloomy northern England, as well as documentary scenes from pubs. If I didn’t know better, I might have guessed that some of the images were by Chris Killip.

At second glance, however, the Parr we know becomes increasingly recognisable. Many of the images only need to be imagined in colour—and perhaps with people in different clothes—for us to feel “at home” again. Or at least “on the way there.”

In his brief introduction, Jeffrey Ladd describes his first impressions like this: “… I remember thinking that holding this early publication by Parr at that moment felt like looking backwards – like learning something in reverse order.” Strictly speaking, Ladd is referring to his initial encounter with Bad Weather, but the sentiment applies just as well to this book.

Early Works, first published in 2019 by RRB Photobooks, was followed by a revised second edition in 2025, which remains available today. Both editions are beautifully bound in linen and showcase one of the book’s own photographs as a print on the cover.

Why do I recommend this book?

The simple answer: if you love photography, it’s impossible not to recommend Martin Parr.

Beyond that—and aside from my desire to honour Martin Parr after his sad passing—I find this book fascinating for several reasons. It shows the path an artist has taken and how his work has evolved over time. If we look closely, it can also reveal something about the person himself and his view of the world.

The Martin Parr we know

I’ll begin with the Martin Parr that many people know today: colourful, slightly weird, and provocatively funny. The images from the aforementioned Last Resort exemplify this approach and are, of course, what made Parr famous with a wide audience.

We are also familiar with his pictures of mass tourism and its often amusing, sometimes bizarre, escapades, seen in many books and exhibitions.

I believe that much less well known to the general public, however, are his many detailed works on topics such as food. Martin Parr has often approached these with meticulous attention and obsession. Similarly colourful, but much more up close—Parr as a food photographer of a very special kind.

But what has almost always been characteristic of Martin Parr’s motifs—even during his travels around the world—is his keen interest in everyday life. His favourite subjects are quite literally found on the street, on the table, at his feet.

The extraordinary in the ordinary

Even though Martin Parr travelled the world and visited many famous—and for some even exotic—places, his focus was always on people and the ‘ordinary’. But for him, the ordinary was not ordinary at all, but exciting and interesting in itself.

This way of seeing is already evident in his early photographs from his homeland. Parr searched for moments that revealed the small world around us as it appeared through his eyes. Whether we enjoy what he sees, or how he shows us to ourselves, is another question altogether. 🙂

I photograph people as I find them. But people have issues about how they look.

Martin Parr

But he finds those moments and places where the ordinary seems extraordinary.

Despite the enthusiasm for the humorous, tongue-in-cheek perspective and style, we should not forget that these images are, at their core, highly documentary. They show the world, everyday life, and above all ourselves—with all our quirks—just as we are and were. That is what makes them a precious treasure whose value cannot be overstated.

Martin Parr’s early black and white photographs of the North of England are a remarkable record of an all-but disappeared society. When we remember the 1970s, our vision is informed by Parr’s photographs: lyrical, solemn, respectful, full of longing; the ordinary made extraordinary.

Val Williams

Bird-watching clubs in Surrey, trips to see the Pope in Ireland, holidays in the Scottish Highlands, local football matches, and traditional village festivals all caught the attention of a young Martin Parr. Even back then, two things distinguished his photography: exaggeration and intensity. His images are powerful because of how closely he observes everyday life and how much care he gives to things most people overlook. From local customs and street scenes to unpredictable British and Irish weather, Parr invites us to look again—and notice the strange, funny, and quietly absurd moments that shape ordinary life.

In this sense, the images in Early Works offer a double pleasure, showing a world that no longer exists through Parr’s unique, ironic perspective.

An extra dose of humour

Unfortunately, I never had the honour of meeting Martin Parr in person. Yet the wealth of interviews, videos, and documentaries about him allows for a meaningful impression of who he was. One trait, above all, comes through with clarity: his humour—arguably the very embodiment of English wit. This humour, paired with his extraordinary eye for scenes and fleeting moments, is already unmistakable in his early work.

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I will sorely miss his view on the world—and his humour. R.I.P.