Love is ALL

Color developer

by Alessandra Cenna

MUDEC Photo Milan

- Italy -

from February 10 to June 30, 2024

MARTIN PARR

«Short & Sweet»

Martin Parr Cigarette Common Sense 1995-1999 © Martin Parr/ Magnum Photos

Martin Parr is exhibiting at “Mudec Photo in Milan” with more than 60 personally chosen photographs. This installation, “Common Sense”, composed of two hundred images and a previously unpublished interview traces his formidable career. British photographer, born in 1952 in Epsom, not far from London, he is considered, thanks to his social images and his documentaries, as an observer and chronicler of modern life in the English provinces. He studies human behavior with realism, humor, irony and sometimes also cynicism.

Thanks to his mastery of bright colors and his very recognizable style, his lucid and sharp eye was able to decipher social themes such as malnutrition, vacationers at the seaside, mass tourism or the consumer society. A provocateur looking for a different approach, he knows how to capture authentic and eccentric moments of everyday life and shows boredom and banality with total derision.

The exhibition begins by presenting its first series, in black and white, produced by a young Parr just out of art school “The Non Conformists” (1975-1980). Traveling with his future wife in the suburbs from Yorkshire, he took images of the Methodist and Baptist communities in the North of England

With “Bad Weather”, Martin Parr had fun studying the faces of the English and Irish when they face bad weather, rain or snow. His first color project “The Last Resort” (1982-85) is set in the beaches of New Brighton, near Liverpool. This cruel and lucid report on the end of the working world affected by unemployment, presents people who profit from the beach in an unsanitary and sad place. “Common Sense” presents 200 images in A3 format, selected from 350 from the 1999 exhibition, thus constituting a true study on mass consumption and the culture of waste, themes dear to Martin Parr. Meal details, cigarette butts, sandals, all these improbable and kitsch objects are printed with an office printer and exhibited simultaneously in 41 places and 17 different countries (Guinness World Record). Mass tourism is analyzed in other clichés highlighting the difference between myths and realities. The theme of dance is powerfully addressed with “Eveybody dance” (1986 - 2018). PFor Martin Parr, this form of expression is the most democrat.

Pour Martin Parr, this form of expression is the most democratic. He therefore took photos of the bodies without reservations or modesty from Brazil to Scotland. “Establishment” (2010-2016) shows the country’s elites, the wealthy classes with their rituals and their disguises, like the Queen’s pale blue outfit. “Life’s a Beach” (2013) focuses attention on the strangest behaviors around the world. Lunches on the sand, the most bizarre positions, dives into the water, reveal seaside behaviors at all latitudes, very varied. Finally, the exhibition presents several images which reveal its collaborations with major fashion magazines and prestigious fashion houses as well as photos taken behind the scenes of major fashion shows.

Martin Parr, an atypical personality, a colorful character…

Martin Parr La Reine en visite à l’occasion du 650ème anniversaire de la Worshipful Company of Drapers, Angleterre, Londres, Drapers’ Livery Hall, 2014 De “Establishment” © Martin Parr/ Magnum Photos