Martin Parr, photographer who chronicled British life, dies aged 73

Photographer captured all aspects of British life, from sunbathing families to village fetes

(AFP/Getty)

Photographer Martin Parr, who captured British life in vivid, characterful images, has died aged 73.

A statement from the Martin Parr Foundation said on Sunday: “It is with great sadness that we announce that Martin Parr died yesterday at home in Bristol.

“He is survived by his wife Susie, his daughter Ellen, his sister Vivien and his grandson George. The family asks for privacy at this time.

The cause of Parr’s death was not disclosed, but he had been diagnosed with cancer in May 2021.

Known for his playful and detailed studies, Parr rose to prominence in the mid-Eighties with The Last Resort, his photographs of working-class people on holiday in New Brighton in Merseyside.

He was born in Surrey in 1952, finding a passion for photography through his grandfather, a keen amateur.

Parr at the opening of his exhibition Early Works at the Fotografie Forum Frankfurt in Frankfurt (AFP/Getty)

After studying in Manchester, he moved between Hebden Bridge in west Yorkshire where he met his wife, Susan Mitchell, then to Ireland and Liverpool before settling in Bristol, where he lived for the rest of his life.

His The Last Resort series was met with significant criticism for its depiction of working-class families, yet others defended him for what they deemed to be an unflinching gaze capturing normal people in their downtime.

Parr went on to capture other facets of society, from genteel garden parties to village fetes and public swimming pools.

In 2011, he photographed several leading figures in the arts – from Grayson Perry to Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis – holding the one treasured possession they would save if their homes were flooded, as part of a collaboration with Oxfam to highlight the climate crisis.

“In terms of my own collecting of objects, I am an obsessive person so I collect anything from political books to photography books, and prints by other people,” Parr told The Independent at the time.

“But I fully realise that as and when the floods come this is not what I'm going to take. I'd probably have to take something like a camera, because a camera is my window to the world. It's through that that I can articulate and express who I am.”

Parr: ‘A camera is my window to the world’ (Getty)

Meanwhile, the story of immigration was integral to his Black Country Stories (2010-2014) series, in which he depicted the ways in which immigrants had brought new life to the area.

“It’s not a particularly wealthy part of the country and we know why – because the industry’s all left – but at least it’s been rejuvenated by the immigration,” he said.

Parr’s work has been exhibited and collected by a number of the world’s leading museums, according to his agency Magnum Photos, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate in London, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

He received a CBE from Queen Elizabeth II in 2021 for his services to photography.