© Martin Parr, Magnum Photos/Kamel Mennour

Martin Parr, "The Artificial Beach Inside the Ocean Dome, Miyazaki, Japan," from the series "Small World" (1996). C-print, 55¼ x 69 in.

October 2009 Reviews

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Rita Ackermann

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Martin Parr Debut Photo Fair Finds Strong Interest in Tokyo Parr To Donate His Collection to His Country 2009 Preview: Paris Museum Shows Watches of Mass Destruction Debut Photo Festival Brings Medium’s Future into Focus Canadian Museum Shows in May Bound for Glory

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Surrey-born Magnum member Martin Parr has made his reputation with photographs that take a sharp, ironic look at modern life, documenting the gaudiness and grotesquerie to be found at every level of society in biting, reality-TV style. Coorganized with the Haus der Kunst, Munich — where it was shown first — this exhibition devotes only three rooms (out of 10) to Parr’s own photographs, the rest displaying items from his extensive collections of old postcards, kitsch objects, prints by other photographers, and books on photography.

The "world" in question is thus Parr’s intellectual universe, a visual documentation of his interests, influences, and insights. The exhibition is something of an apology for and history of what Parr terms "documentary photography," especially in Britain over the past 40 years, as well as a retrospective of political satire and ephemera: Saddam Hussein wristwatches and "Wipe Out Saddam" toilet paper; Sputnik memorabilia juxtaposed with Fidel Castro and JFK figurines; china that both admires and lampoons Margaret Thatcher; and two whole walls of plates, banners, and posters from the 1984-85 British miners’ strike.

Parr’s own photographs on view form two series: "The Guardian Cities Project" (2008) — quirky portraits of contemporary Britain — and, by far the crueler, "Luxury: Documenting the Ostentatiously Wealthy Population of the World" (1994-2008). Outside, in the tourist hot spot Tuileries, are selected shots from his "Small World" mass-tourism series (1986-2005). Parr’s lens may travel the globe, but his tragicomic, seaside-kitsch vision seems quintessentially British, belonging to a tradition of nasty satire and class-conscious social observation going back to Gillray and Hogarth.

"Parrworld" originally appeared in the October 2009 issue of Modern Painters. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Modern Painters' October 2009 Table of Contents.

Current Show: Gateshead: BAlC: Centre for Contemporary Art, Oct. 16, 2009 – Jan. 10, 2010, balticmill.com