The Polarizing Effect of Martin Parr

Preface: I just wrote this piece for an art-photo-history course I'm taking and wanted to put it somewhere on the web - it's pretty long and involved so I won't be insulted if you don't read it all:

Love him or hate him, there is no denying the contribution to, and the influence on, the contemporary, fine-art photography world of the British photographer Martin Parr. A polarized opinion of Martin Parr and his work has followed him throughout his career, from his first exhibitions in the mid-1970's through to the present day. The breadth of this polarity is wide stretching from the working class, English layman who has encountered the the Parr controversy in the tabloids; through the educated middle class, whom Parr targets with much of his wit; through art patrons, gallery curators, and picture editors who cannot get enough of Parr's work; through Parr's influences and students even, and especially, through his contemporaries at Magnum where he is the agency's most controversial member and one if its most financially successful. It seems that in Parrworld¹ there is little middle ground and to paraphrase reviewers of Parr's work, one is either a fan of his stunning and vivid imagery or one is a critic of his cruel and lurid work.

I myself am very middle class. One of the things I wanted to do as a photographer was to connect the subject matter which I was actually part of with the photography. Photographers tend to be attracted to things very different to where they are from .. they tend to like things very different from their own lifestyle, so one of the rules I try to engage with is to try to photograph things that I am part of. So all the things like consumerism, tourism and being middle class is something I've been very interested in.

• Martin Parr²

The above quote applies well to Parr's most famous, color work and to his most recent projects which focus on consumerism, wealth and globalization which I will consider shortly but this is not where his photographic career started out. In the 1960's when Martin Parr was attending the equivalent of high school in Surrey, in the South of England, an area that is part of what is colloquially known as stock-broker belt, and in the 1970's when Parr attended the Manchester College of Art, there was a huge North / South divide in England. Residents of both sides of this unofficial dividing line were highly suspicious of each other. The caricatures were, and still are but to a lesser extent, that the North was uncultured and industrial, whereas the South was seen as wealthy and the predominant habitat of the middle classes. Growing up, Martin Parr, as he admits himself, could not have been more middle class; “I'm so middle class it's unbelievable. [...] My father was a civil servant. I was brought up in middle class Surrey. That's it – it's the perfect middle class pedigree.”³ Growing up Martin Parr did have a connection with the North of England through his grand parents, particularly his grandfather George Parr, living in Yorkshire. He took regular vacations in Yorkshire as a child but it was a romanticized view of the North that Parr experienced on these visits. His grandfather was an accomplished amateur photographers who introduced Parr to the magic of photography and the darkroom and took the family on day trips to local sites and landmarks. Parr saw a holiday Yorkshire idyll not the everyday reality that is his stock and trade.

Parr's childhood Northern adventures must have influenced his choice of college to attend as he escaped the boredom of the suburbs to the northern city of Manchester to go to art school. We know that his projects while in Manchester reflected his new 'exotic' environment. We see pictures of interiors that are much more working class than his upbringing. We know that he tried to locate the real Coronation Street⁴ to use as a photographic subject as if the popular television soap opera had a real-life alter-ego but it is Parr's graduation project, Home Sweet Home, that seems to be his first, deliberate use of photography as an ironic weapon. The project consisted of a free-standing, full-scale model of a working class sitting room. Kitsch furnishings and decorations were used as a backdrop to Parr's own black and white photography. The photographs were mounted in cheap frames of the day perhaps to remove them from the preciousness of art photography. It is a two pronged attack; on one level the sitting room setting can be seen as a criticism of popular tastes of the day – a theme that continues though most of Parr's work to the present day. On the other hand Home Sweet Home was a gauntlet slap in the face to many of Parr's teachers at Manchester Polytechnic who Parr felt were totally unaware of what was happening in the art photography field of the day. If Parr was looking for a strong reaction he got it as he managed to split the opinion of his faculty lecturers. Graduation projects are usually exhibited no further than graduation shows but Parr's notoriety ensured that Home Sweet Home got broader coverage at two further English galleries.

After graduation Parr and several of his peers from Manchester moved a little way out of the city and into a new kind of photography when they formed a loose, artistic community in a slightly run-down, rural village called Hebden Bridge. Although, or perhaps because, Hebden Bridge was in a state of neglect and decline it became a sort of semi-pastoral Eden for Parr and his cohorts. Moving away from the conceptual art photography of his student days Parr seems to fall more under the influence of the American FSA style than the beatnik photography of Robert Frank that Parr cites as his major influence as a student .⁵ Martin and his future wife, Susie Mitchell, zeroed in on a small, declining community based around the Methodist chapel of Crimsworth Dean as a subject for a social documentary project that resulted in some of the most powerful and intimate images of Parr's career. Mitchell seems to have acted as an agent who allowed Parr who was already used to working from a slightly stand-off or aloof perspective, emotionally closer access to their subjects. With Mitchell, Parr became embedded with the congregation of Crimsworth Dean; Mitchell taught Sunday school while Parr helped the church raise funds by holding slide-shows. The great images resulting from these four years demonstrate that the congregation must have been aware that they were the subject for Parr's photography and Mitchell's interviewees were certainly aware of her tape recorder but when the Parrs were outed by a chapel elder for having more artistic than spiritual ambitions for being involved in the parochial community it was painful for both sides. The photographer's usual line of there being unwritten consent between themselves and their subjects does not stand in this case. The photographs were powerful, unsentimental and comprehensive but Parr has never got emotionally that close to his subjects again. Perhaps it is the Crimsworth Dean controversy that defined Parr's modus operandi on future projects of stepping back and being removed from his subject. The experience may also be responsible for Martin's often repeated and quoted philosophy that all photography is exploitative. "My line is that photography by its nature is exploitative. [...] It's unavoidable, especially if you are earning money from it. You're basically earning money from other people's image. Most photographers would never admit that photography is exploitative; they try to hide it because of their humanistic ideals."⁶

After the Crimsworth Dean experience and a couple of years self-imposed exile in isolated Ireland, the Parrs returned to the North of England. During this time England had changed and was now firmly entrenched in the era of Thatcherism which had created a devolution of the English class-system and embraced new-money and consumerism. Parr's photography had also metamorphosed during this time. No longer was he concentrating on quaint, gentle, disappearing communities and rituals but his eye had turned to more contemporary subjects. Some argue that Parr's work became politicized at this time but Parr denied this claiming that he was still just photographing people going about their everyday lives but the emotion does seem more critical of his subjects however much Parr might deny it. The biggest visual change was the switch from a black and white, 35mm system to a medium format, vividly colorful approach that relied on a slightly wide point of view, consumer color film and a signature daylight, fill-flash technique. As previously, inspiration for this aesthetic came not from his peers in the UK but from the US and the colorful snapshot approach that was gaining momentum with William Eggleston, Stephen Shore and their ilk.

With his aesthetic and technical approach renewed, and his subjects being an emerging, rather than disappearing society the stars were aligned for Parr's most popular, critically acclaimed and denounced work. This productive era is prefaced by the works Point of Sale and One Day Trip which both focused on Britain's consumer society but it is the work The Last Resort which catapulted Parr into the spotlight. The Last Resort documents working class families at play in a run-down and dirty seaside town called New Brighton. The work shows naked babies and children with their parents playing and eating in an environment festooned with trash and grime. Junk food and overcrowding are a constant theme through the work. Although Parr denies that this work is neither political nor critical, critics were immediately divided about the work. Some saw it as an insightful portrayal of the times but others thought it a cynical and cruel condemnation of the working class. Of course, the critics themselves were mainly from the liberal, educated middle class and Parr contends that they were being overly defensive and precious towards his working class subjects. What is undeniable is that the publicity and controversy The Last Resort created provided Parr with the financial means and the critical following to follow his muse where it would take him and, almost in direct response to the defenders of the working class, Parr's muse took him back to the South of England and to the middle class who were most benefiting from Thatcher's government.

His next large work, The Cost of Living marks his move away from documenting the working class and can be seen as a direct criticism of middle class that is Parr's heritage. The Cost of Living is no more an affectionate work than The Last Resort and, in some ways can be described as more vicious. The working class holiday makers in The Last Resort are trapped by their surroundings and economic position but the middle class subjects of The Cost of Living and subsequent examinations of a consumer society such as Signs of the Time, From A to B and Small World have the freedom and money that provide more choices of how to live and the environments they create for themselves. In many ways these works are more damning criticisms of the middle class than earlier work was of the their working class equivalents, a point not lost on the critics who felt the bead of Parr's focus fall upon them. Parr is now accused of being aloof and a cynical, arbiter of good taste for the whole nation but criticism brings with it attention and with this attention Parr's career continued to grow.

He followed up these major works with a slight change in aesthetic. His color work had, up to this point, remained slightly wide angle and medium format. This approach changes slightly with Common Sense when he returned to 35mm. This is was not a return to his early, romantic black and white work but Parr adopts a macro lens and a ring flash; he gets in really close in on his subjects and the style backs away from identifiably documentary to a more abstract and conceptual approach not seen from Parr since his student projects. His subjects remain the same: junk food, traditions, tourism, the results of consumerism and globalization. If anything, the colors become even more saturated. The tight in approach renders differing subjects in a similar way and the juxtaposition of particular images on the page emphasize this; raw bacon looks the same as sunburned skin, pasty sausages look similar to a piece of spent chewing gum. Of course, the critics had something to say about this change in direction and they found it hard to recognize the documentary thread that had run through Parr's career. They also criticized what they saw as a less hard hitting style but if you look closely the work from this period is probably the most damning of western society that Parr has produced to date.

The art photography world is badly paid for most participants compared to worlds of fashion, commercial and documentary photography. Parr saw that his work overlapped into these genres and looked around for an agency to represent him. He was already a controversial associate member of the Magnum agency but be decide to seek full membership of what was seen as the world's top photo agency knowing that he was likely to be strongly resisted by the old guard. Magnum functions like a cooperative where membership is obtained dependent upon a vote cast by existing members.

If he was expecting a fight he was not disappointed. In an open letter to the Magnum membership Philip Jones Griffiths actively campaigned against allowing Parr to become a full member of Magnum, “It would be the embracing of a sworn enemy whose meteoric rise in Magnum was closely linked with the moral climate of Thatcher's rule [...] Let me state that I have great respect for him as the dedicated enemy of everything I believe in and, I trust, what Magnum still believes in.”⁷ The main criticism of Parr was that, whereas Magnum prided itself on romantic, humanistic approach to subjects outside of war zones at least, Parr, in his own words, “... was one of the first to break that humanist tradition that was so strong in the previous generation. They thought I was exploitative, cynical, even fascist. All kinds of words were used.”⁸ It is to Parr's credit that while certain old-school members of Magnum, although they denied it, made personal attacks against his person, Parr remained, as ever, aloof and removed from the battle. He had strong opinions that Magnum's approach and philosophy were outdated but he never resorted to personal attacks. It was a close call but the younger, more forward looking but less vocal members of Magnum recognized Parr's work as different to the traditional Magnum content but also saw that it was a diversity of vision that Magnum needed to remain relevant and by one vote, Parr was accept into the agency. Financially for Magnum this was a good thing as Parr has consistently been one of their top three best selling photographers since his admission.

Ironically, one of the other leading horses in Magnum sales is consistently Henri Cartier-Bresson who had a strong, visceral reaction against Parr's work when he experienced it. Bresson rebuked Parr in public when they met in 1995. In a letter that was made public HCB later apologized for his over-reaction but said that what upset him about Parr's work was “the philosophy of a man taking himself seriously, without humor, where rancor and scorn dominate, a nihilistic attitude symptomatic of society today.”⁹ As HCB had been one of Parr's teenage idols this must have been tough to read but, yet again, Parr kept his cool and held his ground; “I acknowledge there is a large gap between your celebration of life and my implied criticism of it [...] What I would query with you is 'Why shoot the messenger?'”¹⁰

To say that Martin Parr deliberately courted controversy is to demonize him as being manipulative and contriving. It seems more fair and honest to say that Parr does not shy away from a fight and that he constantly stays on message addressing the themes he sees as important. It is true that controversy has, to some extent, made Martin Parr the photographer he is today both in his aesthetic approach and his resulting professional standing and financial success.

The confrontation at Crimsworth Dean after the Parr's infiltrated the community and the way their subjects subsequently felt betrayed shaped the way Martin Parr approached his subjects from then on. Although he claims to be a part of the society he portrays, and he may be part of the same demographic as his subjects, his perspective is deliberately detached and unemotional. This can be construed as heartless and cynical if this is the way you are inclined to view Parr's work. If you are more sympathetic to his agenda it can be seen as simply honest and that Parr is simply the messenger reflecting our world, and our effect on it, back at us. Parr's unsparing view of both the working and middle class have galvanized opinions in both his critics and audience. His most famous fan was, allegedly, Margret Thatcher while his most vocal and famous critic was Bresson. Everyone seems to have a strong emotional response to the social documentary parts of Parr's body of work. Everyone who knows Parr's work has a strong opinion of it and perhaps this demonstrates Parr's importance both as an art photographer and as a social documentarian; he makes people think and examine themselves. Those strong enough to take this criticism seem to appreciate Parr's work while those who are more critical of him often acknowledge that they are also disillusioned with the direction of the modern world and Parr's work, therefore, makes something of a convenient scapegoat. In the end, Parr's persistence and faith in his own vision will be responsible for his legacy: “I have kept producing new work, new books; and I guess, in the end, people take that seriously. If you're around long enough, and you keep doing new work, and it keeps provoking an audience to dislike you, and, obviously, some people like it as well, people will notice what you do."¹¹

I hope I have demonstrated how Martin Parr's career has been followed by strong, divergent opinions of both the artist and his work. Parr does not shy away from uncomfortable subjects or from criticism. Being a popularist his work has escaped gallery walls and art magazines on to the pages of high circulation magazines and billboards and his work often makes people think. Parr does not make pretty pictures in a traditional style but he reflects back the world and society most of his viewers are part of. It is a strong message that does not show us in the most favorable light. Strong, difficult, unflattering messages often elicit a strong emotional response in those addressed but Martin Parr has made it his mission to be that polarizing force and messenger.

Love him or hate him, I began this piece as a huge fan of Martin Parr. While doing the background reading I found some of what he says judgmental and difficult to stomach. I see Martin Parr as a hard task master but remain convinced of the importance of his work and see controversy as a side effect of the themes he addresses and the way he addresses those themes. Parr still makes me think about my place in the world and shows me, in the words of Oscar Wilde “It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex and vital.”¹²

Bibliography: Books

• Miller, Russell: Magnum: Fifty Years at the Front Line of History: The Story of the Legendary Photo Agency - Grove Press; 1st Grove Press Pbk. Ed edition (October 1999 – Hardback published 1997)

• Parr, Martin: Boring Postcards - Phaidon Press (September 30, 1999)

• Parr, Martin: Last Resort: Photographs of New Brighton - Dewi Lewis Publishing; New Ed edition (February 1998)

• Parr, Martin: Small World - Dewi Lewis Publishing; Rev Ed edition (November 1, 2007)

• Parr, Martin: The Cost of Living - Aperture (January 1991)

• Parr, Martin: Think of England - Phaidon Press Pbk. Ed edition (November 1, 2004)

• Parr, Martin & Barker, Nicholas: From A to B - BBC Books (March 17, 1994)

• Parr, Martin & Badger, Gerry: The Photobook: A History, Vol. 1 & 2 - Phaidon Press (December 1, 2004 & October 7, 2006)

• Poynor, Rick: Obey the Giant: Life in the Image World - Birkhäuser Basel; 2nd ed. edition (October 24, 2007)

• Williams, Val: Martin Parr - Phaidon Press (February 1, 2002)

Bibliography: Audio Interviews

• Audience discussion with Martin Parr on the occasion of the Swiss exhibition “We Are All Photographers Now!” at the Musée de l’Elysée, 2007
  

• Martin Parr at the Photopub Festival, October 7th, 2004

• Lens Culture interview, 2005

• Zoom In interview, 2006
  

Bibliography: Periodicals

• The Financial Times, February 16, 2007: Lunch with the FT: Martin Parr by Peter Aspden

Bibliography: WWW References

• Magnum Photos:

• Martin Parr articles 

• Portfolio 

• Martin Parr's Personal site