In a career spanning over four decades, photographer Martin Parr is best known for his use of highly saturated color, and his focus on themes of class, consumer culture and leisure. An exhibition at Huxley-Parlour Gallery in London currently showcases over 30 of his early works. The photographs on display are drawn from Parr’s early series, The Non-Conformists, Bad Weather, Beauty Spots, A Fair Day and his first color series The Last Resort: Photographs of New Brighton.
This exhibition explores the roots of this photographic output, by displaying works from the first fifteen years of Parr’s career, predominantly lesser-known works produced in black and white. The images were taken by Parr between 1972 and 1986, and collectively illustrate the photographer’s transition from shooting in black and white in rural Northern England, to his seminal series The Last Resort, taken with color film in the mid 1980s. This exhibition provides an opportunity to see a selection of formative works that showcase Parr’s characteristic wry humor and eye for well-composed, dynamic composition.
Highlights included in the exhibition are Parr’s first ever color photograph, taken in 1971, and works from his first series, made in Hebden Bridge in the years immediately following his graduation for Manchester Polytechnic.
Martin Parr: Early Work 1971-1986
16 May – 9 June 2018
Huxley-Parlour
3-5 Swallow Street
London, W1B 4DE
United Kingdom
