Photography & photographers

Martin Parr

Val Williams, Martin Parr - Photographer (GBP 17.46 at Amazon)

Sleeve notes

One of the leading British photographers of his, or any, generation, Martin Parr presents a retrospective of his 30-year career, a dynamic entirely appropriate to his wry, equivocal look at nostalgia and tradition. Suburban warrior from Surrey, he was one of the first to drag British photography from the realms of advertising, fashion or hobby to the pretensions of serious "art".

In this major retrospective, the whole of Martin Parr's career has been assessed and includes previously unpublished early work. His startling and original 1974 installation "Home Sweet Home", early black-and-white photographs of the people and places of Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire where he lived and worked in the 1970s, photographs from Ireland and Salford, and of course a selection of the very best images from all his published books including "The Last Resort", "The Cost of Living" and "Signs of the Times". With unlimited access to Parr's archives and quoting from extensive interviews, writer and curator Val Williams charts Parr's life and career, revealing insights into his influences and attitudes and setting him in a new context in assessing his importance as an artist. The book also includes illustrative photographs of Parr and the people and places of his career and a special appendix shows some of his many collections of ephemera from wallpaper to commemorative plates, lapel badges to souvenir models of Lenin and JFK.