{"id":347693,"date":"2025-12-14T15:21:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T15:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/347693\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T15:21:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T15:21:09","slug":"martin-parr-the-photographer-who-inspired-me-to-pick-up-a-camera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/347693\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin Parr: The Photographer Who Inspired Me To Pick Up a Camera"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TwoGB. England. New Brighton. From \u2018The Last Resort\u2019. 1983-85. <\/p>\n

Martin Parr made a huge impression on me early on in life, in no small part because his most famous photos were shot very close to my home city of Liverpool. <\/p>\n

The Last Resort<\/a> was Parr\u2019s project looking at New Brighton, a northern British coastal town meant to replicate the far more famous Brighton on the south coast of England. It never did take off. <\/p>\n

Parr visited New Brighton in the 1980s during its alleged heyday. The photos are grim, yet utterly fascinating as he turned the ordinary into the extraordinary. I attended a talk by Parr in the summer of 2024 in which he admitted he would never have gotten away with the photos today. <\/p>\n

\"AGB. England. New Brighton. From \u2018The Last Resort\u2019. 1983-85. <\/p>\n

He acknowledged that people have become suspicious of the camera, and in today\u2019s society the idea of a stranger being able to take photographs of children in their bathing suits is utterly far-fetched. <\/p>\n

His death at age 73<\/a> this past week did come as a shock. Although when I saw him speak live, he did make reference to an illness he had been suffering. <\/p>\n

\"AHere\u2019s a terrible photo I took of Parr signing books when he did a talk at the Midlands Art Centre in Birmingham in 2024. But at least I shot it on film. <\/p>\n

Very early on in my photography career, when I was still a teenager, I found myself traveling on the ferry across the Mersey to walk in Parr\u2019s footsteps as I searched for my own interesting photos around New Brighton after being inspired by his work. <\/p>\n

I wound up documenting abandoned shopping carts; the pictures caught the attention of my photography tutor, who encouraged me to pursue photography as a full-time career. Long story short: Without Parr and my teacher, I may never have become a photographer. <\/p>\n

\"AA photo I made close to New Brighton circa 2006. The roll of film I shot that day turned out to be seminal. <\/p>\n

Parr has taken criticism for his work, in particular The Last Resort. \u201cThere\u2019s always been an element of controversy in my pictures,\u201d he said while speaking to the The Architectural Review<\/a> in 2020. \u201cI never quite know why, because I\u2019m just showing things as they are, or as I find them, and I don\u2019t see what\u2019s wrong with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AnGB. England. Sedlescombe. British flags at a fair. 1995-1999. \"AGB. England. West Yorkshire. Todmorden. Mayor of Todmorden\u2019s inaugural banquet. 1977<\/p>\n

While some of my fellow Liverpudlians may be offended by The Last Resort, they are possibly my favorite photos of all time. I, like many other people, adore artistic photos of everyday people, and Parr was as good as any who has ever taken up the camera.<\/p>\n

Image credits: Courtesy of the Martin Parr Foundation<\/a> and Magnum Photos<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GB. England. New Brighton. From \u2018The Last Resort\u2019. 1983-85. Martin Parr made a huge impression on me early…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,13044,460,172536,134,17527,1613,191974,9118,191975],"class_list":{"0":"post-347693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-britain","14":"tag-design","15":"tag-documentaryphotography","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-inspiration","18":"tag-liverpool","19":"tag-martinparr","20":"tag-obituary","21":"tag-photographyinspiration"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}