Mr and Mrs Smith, owners of The Fairlawn Hotel, Calcutta, India, 1984 © Martin Parr / Magnum Photos
Martin Parr remembers when, as a young man growing up in the UK, he first realised that it was his destiny to become a photographer. It began when his grandfather lent him a camera, and increased when he discovered Creative Camera magazine in the late 1960s, immersing himself in the work of Robert Frank and Garry Winogrand.
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“But what was most exciting for me was seeing the work of Tony Ray-Jones,”Parr tells AnOther. The year was 1971. Parr, a photography student at Manchester Polytechnic, came across Ray-Jones’ photographs made in England in the late 1960s and was transfixed. “This was one of those moments when your life is changed,” he remembers. “You see something and think, ‘Ahh, this is the aspiration I can look to in terms of work.’”
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With his compass set, Parr set off to photograph the coast and countryside of north England and Northern Ireland, creating series of black and white works that laid the foundation for the next 50 years of his practice. In the new book,Martin Parr: Early Works(RRB Photobooks/Martin Parr Foundation), the photographer takes us back to those formative years, painting a portrait of Britain that eloquently captures the idiosyncratic character of its people.
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Butlins Filey, North Yorkshire, England, 1972© Martin Parr / Magnum Photos
Manorhamilton Sheep Fair, County Leitrim, Ireland, 1981 © Martin Parr / Magnum Photos