Martin Parr (1952–2025): A Tribute
Martin Parr was one of the most important and influential photographers of the last fifty years. His practice changed the way we look at photography, and the way in which photography has become understood in Britain. Martin’s work dealt deeply with the human condition: combining a deep affection and love of humanity (he was fascinated with all its various forms) with the ability to stand back and observe social conditions with a critical eye. Martin Parr could move easily from the micro to the macro level, from a small village in Somerset (published as Chew Stoke) to the worlds of globalisation and tourism (published as Small World and Common Sense).
I first met Martin when the Bodleian was seeking funding and moral support for the acquisition of the personal archive of William Henry Fox Talbot. I asked a group of contemporary photographers to donate prints that we sold to benefit the acquisition at a special sale at Sotheby’s. Martin was the first person I asked, and the first to say yes, and he later gave a powerful quote for the public campaign. He invited me to Bristol to see his collection, then in rented storage. I was blown away. Over lunch we hatched a plan for him to come and photograph a year in the life of the University, part of his long-term project to document the British establishment. I was able to find the money to commission him, and Sophie Goldsworthy at OUP persuaded the Delegates to publish a selection of the images as a photobook, which was published in 2017, at the same time as an exhibition in the Weston Library. Martin was the first photographer to get truly inside the university, from colourful ceremonies to science labs and even a tutorial (at Balliol). He presented a wonderful archive of prints to the Bodleian and this work would form part of his broader survey of the establishment exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery as Only Human (2019). As part of the commission he documented the opening of the Weston Library.
We were able to buy a complete set of Martin’s own photobooks (of which there have been a huge number) and Martin often suggested to me acquisitions for us to make, as his own knowledge and commitment to photobooks was immense. He and Gerry Badger collaborated on a monumental three-volume series The Photobook: A History, and he also produced a companion volume on the history of the Chinese Photobook. His first collection was sold to the Tate in 2017, the proceeds of which enabled him to open the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol, moving his studio there and beginning a major exhibition and publication programme, with a bookshop, and building another reference photobook collection.
Martin continued to support what we were doing with photography: he introduced me to a number of photographers who were looking for solutions for the future of their archives, his encouragement was instrumental in ensuring we completed the project to catalogue, document, exhibit and publish the superb archive of his old friend Daniel Meadows, for example. Martin came to open our Paddy Summerfield show just a few weeks ago. He urged me to do more – it was through Martin that I was first introduced to Paddy, and without that connection we would not have been given the archive of a great Oxford photographer. He befriended our curators of photography and gave them lots of advice.
Martin Parr was one of the greatest photographers of the last century, and we were lucky to count him as a friend. His commitment to photography was peerless, and the world of photography will never be the same again.
Image: Martin Parr by Daniel Meadows when they were students together at Manchester Polytechnic, 1972. Picture taken on a day out in the Peak District.
