Martin Parr Quotes

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Martin Parr

Profession : Photographer

Birth : May 23, 1952

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Martin Parr

The idea of England in decline is very attractive.

Martin Parr

I photograph wealth.

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

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

Martin Parr

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

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

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

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

Martin Parr

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

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