Utterly Lazy and Inattentive

One of the most popular photographers on the planet recounts his life and artBy the age of 14, I decided I would be a photographer. ‘It’s what I will do for the rest of my life, until I drop dead.’ I knew when I was very young. It was a definite decision.

Don’t ask me why. I just knew it was the right thing. When Martin Parr was fourteen, his teacher wrote that he was ‘utterly lazy and inattentive’ in a school report.

He went on to become one of the most successful and sought-after photographers in the world. Martin has published over one hundred photobooks on many different subjects, from seaside resorts to smoking, over his career. Now, for the first and only time, Martin has produced a book about himself, telling his own story, in his own words.

This autobiography combines over 150 of Martin’s photographs – from his earliest snapshots to the work he is doing today – with his recollections and reflections on each image. We meet a boy growing up in suburbia, who collects obsessively and notices everything. We see him exploding into the public consciousness in the late eighties with a series of startling, ultra-saturated colour images of the British seaside – and scandalising the photography establishment in the process.

We see society changing over the decades, from the demise of steam trains, through the opening of the first McDonald’s in Moscow, to the transformations of the post-pandemic world. As Martin shares his story, his distinctive voice delicately captured by his friend, the writer Wendy Jones, he also reveals his approach to work and commissions; his tricks for gaining access and getting the shot; and he divulges his particular passions: for crowds and queues, fetes and placards, bad weather on beaches, and more. This is the definitive account of a great photographer’s career, curating the work that has defined his life.

By looking at the world through his eyes and his lens, we come away seeing Martin Parr – and ourselves – a little differently.