Inspired in his early teens by his grandfather, George Parr FRPS, Martin graduated from Manchester Polytechnic and began work as an in-house photographer in the surreal world of Butlin’s in the early 1970s. With Daniel Meadows, he made “Butlin’s by the Sea” and developed a left-leaning perception of ‘class’, ‘play’, and social ‘posing’.
This shaped his life’s work on British leisure and taste, saturated colour often augmented by a macro lens and ring flash. The brash, ethically challenging, ‘as you see it’ style could be controversial, though it didn’t quite prevent his election to the Magnum agency, and surely contributed to the global rise in popularity of street photography in recent times.
As his reputation grew, he gave his time, cash, and influence generously. A voracious collector generally, as a photographer he didn’t just make photobooks, he educated the world in the photobook as a form. Much of his 12,000 strong collection went to the Tate in 2017.
That year, he established the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol strengthening his contribution to regional and national photography from there. Many knew it as a drop-in hub – a place to meet, leaf through books, feel part of the wider craft, from fine art to news, zines, and youth work, and often rubbing shoulders with the greats of photography who ‘just happened to be passing’.
Parr died of myeloma cancer at home in Bristol on 6 December 2025, aged 73.