Closed
15.7 – 29.8 2014
Martin Parr:Signs Of The Times
3–5 Swallow St
Martin Parr:Signs Of The Times
15.07 – 29.08.2014
Closed
Hours
Monday to Saturday
10:00 am – 5:30 pm
Gallery
3–5 Swallow St
W1B 4DE
London
After a Few Weeks Living Here I Put Out a Few Teddy Bears and he Came Home One Day and Just Went Mad About it Martin Parr. Martin Parr
In association with Rocket Gallery London, Huxley-Parlour present Martin Parr: Signs of the Times. Containing modern and vintage prints, this will be the first time photographs from this important series have been shown at a solo exhibition in London.
Martin Parr is one of Britain’s most significant photographers, best known for his sharp eye and sense of humour. Over his thirty year career he has focused on capturing ordinary people doing ordinary things – at the seaside, in supermarkets, at village country fairs or on holiday abroad. Often highly saturated and brightly coloured Parr has become known as a commentator and recorder of Britain’s finely nuanced class system.
The Works
19
Martin Parr
It Was Very Masculine When I Came in Here, So I Put my Quilt Out – the Flowery one Which he Detests
1991
C-type print, printed later
Martin Parr
We are Going to Come to a Nice Compromise on Every Issue. I’ve Already Decided What Colours we’re Going to Have. He Can Just Pick the Variations
1991
C-type print, printed later
Martin Parr
Underneath it All She Really is a Lovely Girl
1991
C-type print, printed later
Martin Parr
I Like to be Surrounded by Things that are Visually Impressive
1991
C-type print, printed later
Martin Parr
It’s Not Stuff That Run-Of-The-Mill People Would Have in Their Homes
1991
C-type print, printed later
Martin Parr
The Fire Has a Light Bulb Underneath Which We Don’t Use Because it is Very Cheap Looking
1991
C-type print, printed later
Martin Parr
Each to Their Own But I Think This is Going to be One of the Best – if Not the Best – Houses on the Estate
1991
C-type print, printed later
Martin Parr
I Don’t Think it’s Anything Particularly Forced on Deborah, We’ve Just Always Enjoyed the Same Sort of Things
1991
C-type print, printed later
Martin Parr
There Wasn’t Anything Here That Had a Feminine Touch. I Basically Moved in and Plonked Things Down
1991
C-type print, printed later
Martin Parr
It Still Feels as Though we are Living in a Hotel Suite. I Want to Pick up the Phone and Ring for Room Service
1991
C-type print, printed later
Martin Parr
When I Looked at the Wallpaper and the Wallpaper Looked at me we Instantly Fell in Love
1991
C-type print, printed later
Martin Parr
Dramatic, Glamorous, Over-The-Top. I Think That’s What We’re Looking For
1991
C-type print, printed later
Martin Parr
We Wanted a Cottagey Stately Home Kind of Feel
1991
C-type print, printed later
Martin Parr
Woodworm does Generate Through the Furniture, and Obviously if You’re Putting New Things into Your Home the Last Thing you Want is an Invitation to Worms
1991
C-type print, printed later
Martin Parr
Everything’s Very Important to me. I Can’t Just Live in an Ordinary House, it Has to be a Special House
1991
C-type print, printed later
Martin Parr
I Get Such Pleasure from them Every Day When I Sit in the Bath
1991
C-type print, printed later
Martin Parr
The House Came with Everything Right Down to the Bars of Soap
1991
C-type print, printed later
Martin Parr
We Keep Buying Things Thinking ‘That’ll Look Better’ and it Just Doesn’t
1991
C-type print, printed later
Martin Parr
It’s this Edwardian Look that we’re Trying to Achieve from the Bottom Right Up to the Top of the House
1991
C-type print, printed later
B. United Kingdom 1952
Biography
Martin Parr’s distinctive style of photography captures the oddities and humours of everyday British life through a vibrantly coloured, hyper-realistic lens. At the beginning of the 1980s Parr’s work aimed to mirror the lifestyle of ordinary British people, reflecting the social decline and distress of the working class during the era of Margaret Thatcher. He earned an international reputation for his oblique approach to social documentary, and for innovative imagery. The Last Resort: Photographs of New Brighton (1986) was Parr’s first project to show a move towards his now distinct personal style: bright colours and vivid images, gaining him the reputation as a renowned satirical photojournalist. Other of Parr’s series include Bad Weather (1982), Common Sense (1995-99), and Signs of the Times (1992).
Parr was born in Surrey in 1952, later studying Photography at Manchester Polytechnic. He has exhibited his work globally since 1974, including exhibitions at The National Portrait Gallery and The Photographer’s Gallery, London, The National Centre of Photography, Paris and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Japan. Parr is prolific in his output and has published over a hundred books of his own work. He has won many awards throughout his career including the Royal Photographic Society’s Centenary Award, Photokina’s Eric Solomon Award for photojournalism and in 2017, Sony World Photography Award for Outstanding Contribution to Photography. Parr was the president of Magnum Photos between 2013 – 2017, and remains one of the country’s most popular photojournalists, contributing to a wide range of printed media. Parr founded the Martin Parr Foundation in 2014, opening its premises in Bristol in 2017. The Foundation holds Parr’s own archive, and is a centre for talks, screenings and events.
He lives and works in Bristol.