MARTIN PARR Is One of the Best-Known Documentary Photographers of His Generation. He Is a Chronicler of Our Age

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MARTIN PARR Is One of the Best-Known Documentary Photographers of His Generation. He Is a Chronicler of Our Age

Born in 1952 in Epsom (United Kingdom), MARTIN PARR is one of the best-known documentary photographers of his generation. He is a chronicler of our age. In the face of the constantly growing flood of images released by the media, his photographs offer us the opportunity to see the world from his unique perspective. Leisure, consumption and communication are the concepts that this British photographer has been researching for several decades now on his worldwide travels. In the process, he examines national characteristics and international phenomena to find out how valid they are as symbols that will help future generations to understand our cultural peculiarities. Parr enables us to see things that have seemed familiar to us in a completely new way. Kamel Mennour and Martin Parr have been working together since 2005. Parr has been a member of the Magnum agency since 1994 and was President from 2013 - 2017. In Spring 2015 Aperture published The Chinese Photobook, a book about the history of Chinese photo books that Parr collaborated with Wassinklundgren. In March 2016 Strange and Familiar, curated by Parr, opened at the Barbican, London. The show examines how international photographers from 1930s onwards have photographed in the UK. Parr’s work has been collected by many of the major museums, from the Tate, the Centre Pompidou and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Martin Parr established the Martin Parr Foundation in 2017. Parr also acts as a curator and editor. Martin Parr has published over 100 books of his own work and edited another 30. He has curated two photography festivals, Arles in 2004 and Brighton Biennial in 2010. In 2013, Parr was appointed visiting Professor of Photography at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. .

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Martin Parr, Eric Poitevin and Viviane Sassen Unveil New Commission That Echo the Spirit of the Venue
From 14 May to 20 Octobe r 2019 For its twelfth contemporary art event, the Palace of Versailles invites 5 photographers from around the world to the Estate of Trianon, from 14 May 2019 to 20 October 2019. The next contemporary art exhibition at Versailles will be held in the intimate setting of Trianon. For the 2019 event, Dove Allouche, Nan Goldin, Martin Parr, Eric Poitevin and Viviane Sassen unveil new commission that echo the spirit of the venue. Their works, which combines creation and heritage, reveal a new Versailles. Curatorship Jean de Loisy, director of the Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris Alfred Pacquement, Contemporary Art Curator at Versailles Architect scenographer Hala Wardé & her studio HW architecture PRESS CONTACTS CHÂTEAU DE VERSAILLES Hélène Dalifard, Aurélie Gevrey, Violaine Solari, Élodie Vincent [email protected] / +33 (0)1 30 83 75 21 OPUS 64 Valérie Samuel, Arnaud Pain et Fédelm Cheguillaume [email protected] [email protected] + 33 (0)1 40 26 77 94 FOREWORD The twelfth season of the Versailles contemporary art exhibition leads us as if through the antique darkroom of five photographers – Dove Allouche, Nan Goldin, Martin Parr, Eric Poitevin and Viviane Sassen – through their memories and dreams, and ways of seeing, revealing their visions of Versailles, another Versailles. For the first time, the Château of Versailles has commissioned artists to produce new works. In this instance, images that condense and pare down their thoughts on this elusive place. Nearly two hundred years after its invention, photography and its new techniques make Versailles itself as “new” a subject now as it was at the turn of the 20th century.
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Introduction Martin Parr is a chronicler of our age. In the face of the constantly growing flood of images released by the media, his photographs offer us the opportunity to see the world from his unique perspective. At first glance, his photographs seem exaggerated or even grotesque. The motifs he chooses are strange, the colours are garish and the perspectives are unusual. Parr's term for the overwhelming power of published images is "propaganda". He counters this propaganda with his own chosen weapons: criticism, seduction and humour. As a result, his photographs are original and entertaining, accessible and understandable. But at the same time they show us in a penetrating way that we live, how we present ourselves to others, and what we value. Leisure, consumption and communication are the concepts that this British photographer has been researching for several decades now on his worldwide travels. In the process, he examines national characteristics and international phenomena to find out how valid they are as symbols that will help future generations to understand our cultural peculiarities. Parr enables us to see things that have seemed familiar to us in a completely new way. In this way he creates his own image of society, which allows us to combine an analysis of the visible signs of globalisation with unusual visual experiences. In his photos, Parr juxtaposes specific images with universal ones without resolving the contradictions. Individual characteristics are accepted and eccentricities are treasured. The themes Parr selects and his inimitable treatment of them set him apart as a photographer whose work involves the creation of extensive series.
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