Biography:
Born in Surrey in 1952, Martin Parr studied photography at Manchester Polytechnic. As a freelance photographer he moved to Ireland in the late seventies, where he made his early, seminal work, A Fair Day. He also lead a number of photography workshops organised by the Gallery of Photography on the Aran Islands
Returning to the UK, he earned an international reputation for his oblique approach to social documentary, and for innovative imagery. In 1994 he became a member of Magnum after much heated debate over his provocative photographic style.
His work is in numerous public collections and he has exhibited extensively. Indeed, he is unique among all artists in staging, in 1991, a solo exhibition, Common Sense, simultaneously in 43 locations worldwide, including the Gallery of Photography. In 2002, a large retrospective of Parr's work was initiated by the Barbican Art Gallery in London, and has toured around the world. Parr was appointed Professor of Photography in 2004 at the University of Wales, and was Guest Artistic Director for Rencontres d'Arles in the same year. In recent years, he has developed an interest in film-making, and was guest curator at the New York Film Festival this year. He has published over twenty books of his photographs.
Martin Parr is Patron of the Gallery of Photography.
The piece from the current exhibition is County Mayo, Ireland from the series ‘Bungalow Bliss’ (1980-83) in A Fair Day.
