Spanish
British photographer Martin Parr, whose lens clearly documented the singularities of UK society, has died at the age of 73, after being diagnosed with cancer in 2021.
His family announced on social media this Sunday that the artist passed away yesterday Saturday at his home in Bristol, southwest England.
"The Martin Parr Foundation and Magnum Photos will work together to preserve and share Martin's legacy," added his relatives in a message posted on Instagram.
You can also read: The burning of the devil in Guatemala: culture, satire and environmental awareness
In addition to directing his camera with humor and fine irony at the English class system or simply portraying the daily life of the island, Parr also turned his clinical eye on Spain, where he spent long periods of time. In 2023, he presented 'MálagaEXPRESS', an exhibition with 104 images in which he explored the behaviors of leisure, tourism, and the middle class of Málaga, as he had previously done with the English one. His iconic book 'The Last Resort: Photographs of New Brighton' (1986), featuring holiday snapshots of the British working class, represented a stylistic shift in documentary photography, adopting more colorful, saturated, and striking tones. Parr, a member of Magnum since 1994, an agency he chaired between 2014 and 2017, used to repeat that he made "serious photographs disguised as entertainment". Her snapshots were not always received with praise, as she was criticized for portraying the most disadvantaged classes from her middle-class position, although she also turned her focus towards them and towards the wealthiest Britons. In this regard, Parr maintained that all photojournalists were "left-wing" because, to do this job, it was essential that "you care about people". "I try to point out when I find universal truths. Truth is subjective, but it is the world as I found it," explained the artist in an interview with The Architectural Review in 2020. In 2014, he created the 'Martin Parr Foundation', which contains his own photographic archive and an extensive collection of work by other British and Irish colleagues.
