{"id":298059,"date":"2026-02-14T17:05:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T17:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/298059\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T17:05:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T17:05:18","slug":"ive-learnt-how-to-slow-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/298059\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019ve learnt how to slow down\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the summer of 2024 Harry Styles was taking time out after a 22-month world tour. He had turned 30 earlier that year. Staying in a house outside Rome with his friend Alessandro Michele, the former creative director at Gucci, Styles invited Martin Parr, the British photographer and Sunday Times contributor, to capture him at home and off duty. <\/p>\n

Parr died in December aged 73. This is the first time these photographs have been published. <\/p>\n

Last month, ahead of the release of his fourth solo album, Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally, Styles met up with Harry Lambert, his friend and stylist, to talk about Martin Parr, marathon running, coming home, deleting Instagram and becoming an uncle. This is an edited version of their conversation. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Harry Styles in Italy, summer 2024, photographed by Martin Parr<\/p>\n

MARTIN PARR\u2009\/\u2009DMB<\/p>\n

Harry Lambert: Let\u2019s start by talking about your relationship with Martin Parr. How did these images come about? <\/p>\n

Harry Styles: Martin is someone I\u2019ve always wanted to work with. He\u2019s a British icon and his photography has a sense of humour that is often lost in what is considered to be \u201chigh art\u201d. I love his lens, the way he looks at the quieter side of British culture and sees something special. He\u2019s the photographer that, while everyone else is doing fashion shoots, he\u2019s taking pictures of what\u2019s going on to the side \u2014 and he\u2019s seeing something special in that.<\/p>\n

The shoot came about when I spent the summer in Italy in 2024. It was a big, important, transitional moment for me \u2014 to stop working and be settled somewhere for a while. I was settling into that life and a new space. I was aware of how pivotal that time in my life was going to be and capturing it with someone like Martin felt like a fun opportunity. <\/p>\n

The images and the shoot were never meant to be for any outside use. However, when Martin sent them I fell in love with them and he was keen to see them published. Before he passed we\u2019d discussed offering them to The Sunday Times Magazine, a publication Martin loved.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Martin Parr obituary: photographer who revealed British life<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Parr joins Styles and friends for dinner, summer 2024<\/p>\n

COURTESY OF HARRY STYLES<\/p>\n

When we started working together you weren\u2019t comfortable allowing people to shoot in your private space, but you allowed Martin into your inner world, to meet your friend Alessandro. How did that feel for you?<\/p>\n

This shoot happened at a time when I was really struggling with trying to be as private as possible. I felt like that was becoming increasingly difficult. I\u2019m so glad that we did it. I found it really inspiring to watch Martin at work. There are a lot of people who aren\u2019t lucky enough to enjoy what they do that much. I found how he works, his curiosity and explorative nature, really inspirational.<\/p>\n

When I heard that Martin died I was sent a picture of him \u2014 he\u2019d been in the mountains just three days before \u2014 and he was lying on a snowmobile with his camera, with his eyes closed. And I thought he was so in it until that very last moment. He really lived and walked the walk, doing what he loved.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Martin Parr: My biggest regret \u2014 and the secret of a great photo<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Harry<\/p>\n

Styles in Italy with Alessandro Michele, the former creative director at Gucci, now at Valentino<\/p>\n

MARTIN PARR\u2009\/\u2009DMB<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve heard you say how we met. I\u2019m intrigued to hear how you remember it.<\/p>\n

When I moved to London I started meeting a lot of people \u2014 lots of different types of people \u2014 and it was such an eye-opening experience for me. I\u2019d never seen people dress so differently. It blew my world up in a lot of ways. I was 19 and I realised there were parts of this that I wanted to discover for myself.<\/p>\n

I learnt that getting dressed up can be fun, that I like wearing a suit and I like trying new looks. But I remember the first time I went back to where I grew up [Styles was born in Redditch, Worcestershire, before moving as a child to Holmes Chapel in Cheshire], wearing a pair of Chelsea boots. People were, like, \u201cWhat the f*** are you wearing? They\u2019re not football trainers.\u201d I was ripped for wearing Chelsea boots! But from the first time we met at a pub [in 2014] and you showed me the clothes you\u2019d brought with you, I felt like you didn\u2019t take any of it too seriously \u2014 and that was refreshing to me.<\/p>\n

\"NINTCHDBPICT000757003483\"<\/p>\n

Styles and Lambert on a photoshoot for Vogue in 2020<\/p>\n

INSTAGRAM \/ HARRY LAMBERT<\/p>\n

\"Harry<\/p>\n

With Lambert at the Grammy awards in Los Angeles on February 1<\/p>\n

STELLA BLACKMON<\/p>\n

I remember when you went solo and I saw you at one of your first live performances. I felt you were scared, vulnerable and a bit nervous. It was the first time I\u2019d seen you like that. Was it because of the pressure of that first performance? Did it feel like starting again?<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re in a band with four other people, there\u2019s so much room to hide. There\u2019s only ever so much weight that\u2019s on your shoulders. The first couple of times on stage [without One Direction], I\u2019d think, \u201cWhat do I do with my hands?\u201d But I also felt very alone all of a sudden. I was lucky to have the opportunity where people were interested in what I was going to make, but I put a lot of that pressure on myself, wanting it to be correct. With that first album [Harry Styles in 2017] I was trying to explore what music I would make by myself, but in that moment I felt there were a lot of people who had put faith in me and I didn\u2019t want to disappoint people or let them down.<\/p>\n

\"Harry<\/p>\n

Styles, left, with One Direction in 2011<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

Britney and the schoolgirl outfit, Elvis and his white jumpsuit, Madonna and her pointy bra\u2026 I wondered what you feel is that iconic image that you\u2019d want people to remember you for?<\/p>\n

For me it was the jumpsuit with the red hearts and the white T-shirt underneath that I wore at Wembley Stadium. When you move at such a fast pace there\u2019s always the question of, \u201cAm I enjoying this enough?\u201d During that show, that fear left my body and there was a sense of calm. I could see my parents dancing together and in the encore, when we played Sign of the Times, it started raining and it was as though we\u2019d paid for the rain. It was perfect timing. I remember having a massive smile on my face. I thought, \u201cHow can I ask for any more joy?\u201d I felt so full in that moment. I felt like I was flying.<\/p>\n

\"NINTCHDBPICT001056221507\"<\/p>\n

Wearing a Gucci outfit on stage at Wembley Stadium as the heavens open, 2022<\/p>\n

After Love on Tour [Styles\u2019s world tour ran from September 2021 to July 2023] you chose to take time out \u2014 the first proper break you\u2019d had in ten-plus years. What has life been like for you for the past two and a half years?<\/p>\n

At the end of the tour the idea of taking time out felt insane. I didn\u2019t know if I could do it. But it was the right time for me \u2014 we\u2019d finished the tour in July and I was turning 30 in February. It was time for me to stop for a bit and pay some attention to other parts of my life. <\/p>\n

Italy has become really special to me over the past few years. I drove from London to Rome during Covid, in that time when you could travel. I\u2019d spent all my years before that touring \u2014 with little gaps in between \u2014 and if I had a week off I\u2019d never have driven somewhere, I would have got there and back as fast as possible. Presented with this time, I drove there \u2014 and I thought, I\u2019m going to enjoy doing this. When I was in Rome, the city just taught me how to slow down. <\/p>\n

Italy became so important to me because I was so used to everything moving so quickly and being on the go, but then I remember going to a caf\u00e9 and sitting and having a coffee and thinking, \u201cI don\u2019t remember the last time I sat down and had a coffee \u2014 if I\u2019ve ever sat down and just had a coffee.\u201d I was suddenly learning, through my friends, that eating a meal is more than just sitting down and refuelling. I realised the pleasure in just being in the moment of what you\u2019re doing. The Romans are the best at that \u2014 that\u2019s their speciality. The pace they\u2019ve taught me has been so special. <\/p>\n

Also, in that time my sister [Gemma] had a baby \u2014 and at any other time in my life I would have missed a lot of that. To be there to get to know my niece as she\u2019s growing up, it\u2019s so obvious to me what\u2019s real. It was really obvious that was where I wanted to be. <\/p>\n

\u2022 Harry Styles net worth \u2014 Sunday Times Rich List 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A\"Two\"Four\"A\"Peaches\"Prickly<\/p>\n

Snapshots of Italian life, taken by Martin Parr in 2024<\/p>\n

MARTIN PARR\u2009\/\u2009DMB<\/p>\n

I remember bumping into you in a street in London last year and it felt like I\u2019d met a different person. We went for a walk and there was a sense of lightness in you that I\u2019d not seen before. Has something changed?<\/p>\n

I\u2019d always thought, or hoped, that I was the kind of person who didn\u2019t need the dopamine hits that doing this job often gives you. But I hadn\u2019t actually removed myself from it and it\u2019s hard to eliminate the doubt that maybe if it all went away, I\u2019d really miss it. That\u2019s always been a fear for me. So living my life in a way where I could really like who I am away from this world has been so powerful for me. Without question that has influenced the work I\u2019m now making because it came from a place of pure freedom. <\/p>\n

It was important to get away from the image I had of myself. Since I was young I\u2019d been seeing this version of me that other people see and that was constantly being mirrored back at me. That\u2019s especially the case in the way we use social media now \u2014 for everyone \u2014 and I\u2019m not immune to that. In having time away from everything, it\u2019s allowed me to have conversations with myself on a deeper level that I didn\u2019t have time to explore before. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve made small changes, like not having Instagram on my phone any more. I feel so much healthier in my relationship with this world that I\u2019m stepping back into. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Styles at the piano in Italy<\/p>\n

MARTIN PARR\u2009\/\u2009DMB<\/p>\n

It seems this new-found freedom included running marathons around the world [Styles ran a time of 2hr 59min under the name Sted Sarandos at the Berlin Marathon in September]. Has running been an important part of this time for you?<\/p>\n

Since I was 16 I\u2019d always had some sort of schedule or structure to my life. A part of this time was learning how to not be working all the time. Having a constant schedule is not natural, but doing nothing isn\u2019t natural either. So I wanted to do something where I could achieve something that would fulfil me and give me some sense of structure, but in a way that wasn\u2019t work. I used to run in my early twenties and wanted to do a marathon, but being young I didn\u2019t stretch well enough and didn\u2019t look after my body, so I ended up not doing it. <\/p>\n

As I was approaching my 30th birthday, I thought it was only going to get harder to start running again. I knew I could approach it in a better way now. So it was healthy for me to have something as an outlet that gave me some structure in a moment where I was spending a lot of time by myself. It showed me that I could do difficult things by myself. Running wasn\u2019t about being perfect, or the best, and it has been really rewarding.<\/p>\n

\"Berlin<\/p>\n

Running a sub-three-hour marathon in Berlin in September<\/p>\n

REUTERS<\/p>\n

That leads us back to Martin Parr capturing this time in your life through these images.<\/p>\n

Martin captured a chapter of my life that will always be important to me. I was learning how to slow down. That\u2019s why these pictures that we took and this album \u2014 which is an audio representation of a long diary entry \u2014 are so special. How lucky am I to have these recorded versions of that couple of years of my life? And going into this next chapter I\u2019m very excited for the tour, but if we were only doing two shows and my niece and sister were there watching me, that would be as fulfilling as I need it to be. And, when I listen back to the album, I can hear that I was having fun during this time. It\u2019s fulfilling to make something you\u2019re proud of.<\/p>\n

\"Harry<\/p>\n

Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally is released on March 6. The Last Resort 40 Years On, an exhibition of Martin Parr\u2019s photographs from New Brighton, opens at the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol on February 20 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the summer of 2024 Harry Styles was taking time out after a 22-month world tour. He had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278],"class_list":{"0":"post-298059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}