Top 112 Quotes & Sayings by Martin Parr

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a British photographer Martin Parr.

Last updated on December 25, 2024.

Martin Parr is a British documentary photographer, photojournalist and photobook collector. He is known for his photographic projects that take an intimate, satirical and anthropological look at aspects of modern life, in particular documenting the social classes of England, and more broadly the wealth of the Western world.

British - Photographer | Born: May 23, 1952

Source: Wikipedia

In New York, you have the street; in the U.K., we have the beach. I end up being like a migrating bird, being attracted to it.

Martin Parr

I photograph people as I find them. But people have issues about how they look.

Martin Parr

The idea of England in decline is very attractive.

Martin Parr

Photographers never want to talk about the fact that they may well be in decline. It's the greatest taboo subject of all.

Martin Parr

Photography is, by its nature, exploitative. It's whether you use this process with a sense of responsibility or not. I feel that I do so. My conscience is clear.

Martin Parr

Tourism is the biggest industry in the world.

Martin Parr

My father was an obsessive bird-watcher. The genes of observation passed down.

Martin Parr

Of course, New Brighton is very shabby, very rundown, but people still go there because it's the place where you take kids out on a Sunday.

Martin Parr

When I fly British Airways, I can't help but read the free Daily Mail, which makes me glad I am leaving the country.

Martin Parr

My profile is bigger in Europe than it is in the U.K.

Martin Parr

Dictators are interesting, no?

Martin Parr

The ability for us to laugh at ourselves is Britain's saving grace.

Martin Parr

One of the things I regret is that magazines now are so lifestyle-orientated that the opportunity to do bigger projects is gone. This is a serious misjudgment on the part of magazine editors.

Martin Parr

I am kept awake by the list of possibilities for shooting more photos and deciding what I must prioritise next.

Martin Parr

I avoid Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and if I need to communicate with someone, I email direct.

Martin Parr

Part of the role of photography is to exaggerate, and that is an aspect that I have to puncture. I do that by showing the world as I really find it.

Martin Parr

There are 65 to 70 photography galleries in New York alone. In the U.K., there are no more than five, and they're all in London.

Martin Parr

The trouble with Hollywood films is that they always have a pleasant ending.

Martin Parr

I get up early and open my emails, write cheques, and answer the phone; whatever needs to be done.

Martin Parr

I don't like being flattered. It doesn't suit my English sensibilities. Remember, we are the great country of understatement.

Martin Parr

I just go out and try to make sense of the world around me.

Martin Parr

We live in a difficult but inspiring world, and there is so much out there that I want to record.

Martin Parr

Wealthy people have not disappeared, they are just not so willing to show off their wealth.

Martin Parr

I think the ordinary is a very under-exploited aspect of our lives because it is so familiar.

Martin Parr

Photography is the simplest thing in the world, but it is incredibly complicated to make it really work.

Martin Parr

My black-and-white work is more of a celebration, and the color work became more of a critique of society.

Martin Parr

Places change all the time, and the type of people who live there change.

Martin Parr

Criticism is hypocrisy; society is hypocrisy. I'm a tourist. I'm a consumer. I do the things that I photograph and can be criticized of.

Martin Parr

We live in a homogenized world, where it's hard to get excited when everything is slick and professional. The interesting things are the dull things.

Martin Parr

Most of the photographs people take with their cameraphones are of little value in terms of documentary.

Martin Parr

I never think of photographs as being individual. Always as a group.

Martin Parr

Sometimes you feel uncomfortable taking a photograph, but that's all part of the job.

Martin Parr

Filming is always a challenge because I'm not used to it. But I approach it head-on. I'm not technically brilliant, but it's the spirit that counts.

Martin Parr

There are elements of irony in my work, of course.

Martin Parr

In the '70s, in Britain, if you were going to do serious photography, you were obliged to work in black-and-white. Color was the palette of commercial photography and snapshot photography.

Martin Parr

Over the years, I have perfected the art of dancing and photographing at the same time: it's a great double act. If you're dancing, you are joining in. If you stand there rigid, you are not in the flow of things.

Martin Parr

Taking photos is a form of collecting.

Martin Parr

When I visited Vietnam for Oxfam, the thing that really struck me was how the local farmers had to prepare to evacuate or climb to their mezzanines with their valuable family possessions.

Martin Parr

I do read many of the photography magazines from the U.K. and abroad.

Martin Parr

Margaret Thatcher was very good for the arts in so far as it gave people a real focus for something to be against.

Martin Parr

I toyed with the notion of being an actor, and am so glad that this whim did not go any further.

Martin Parr

I always take photographs when I attend a funeral. Most people there know who I am and expect me to be there with my camera.

Martin Parr

I have been photographing people dancing for 20 or 30 years now, and I think I will eventually do a book of dancing photos.

Martin Parr

You can easily take photographs at a wedding - no one would question it. But funerals are different.

Martin Parr

Fashion pictures show people looking glamorous. Travel pictures show a place looking at its best, nothing to do with the reality. In the cookery pages, the food always looks amazing, right? Most of the pictures we consume are propaganda.

Martin Parr

When someone says to you, 'Oh, I don't take a good picture,' what they mean is they haven't come to terms with how they look. They take a fine picture, it's just that their image of how they think they look is not in touch with the reality.

Martin Parr

If you go to the supermarket and buy a package of food and look at the photo on the front, the food never looks like that inside, does it? That is a fundamental lie we are sold every day.

Martin Parr

I like to keep in touch with younger photographers. It's important that a younger generation comes up and questions the assumptions made by old farts like me.

Martin Parr

I love curating, because I'm lucky and privileged that I have a platform and I can share my discoveries with other people.

Martin Parr

I would drown in objects if I didn't have the ability to photograph them.

Martin Parr

I am away so much, so I rarely see live TV, but I use iPlayer to catch programmes.

Martin Parr

TV-makers usually don't know much about photography.

Martin Parr

If there is any jarring at all in my photographs, it's because we are so used to ingesting pictures of everywhere looking beautiful.

Martin Parr

When I am in London, all I do is mix with other people in the arts.

Martin Parr

My biggest television weakness is 'Dragons' Den.'

Martin Parr

The thing about tourism is that the reality of a place is quite different from the mythology of it.

Martin Parr

Sepia in particular tends to make everything look a bit romantic and almost sentimental, hence the fact that it remains such a popular choice for wedding photographs.

Martin Parr

I am not a huge follower of music and tend to like one CD and play it to death, usually when I am washing up.

Martin Parr

I photograph wealth.

Martin Parr

I am a big fan of Jim Jarmusch, and I do love big screen documentaries.

Martin Parr