Martin Parr Quotes

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

- Martin Parr

Modern technology has taken the angst out of achieving the perfect shot. For me, the only thing that counts is the idea behind the image: what you want to see and what you're trying to say. The idea is crucial. You have to think of something you want to say and expand upon it.

- Martin Parr

Choosing sepia is all to do with trying to make the image look romantic and idealistic. It's sort of a soft version of propaganda.

- Martin Parr

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

- 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

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

- 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

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

- 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

For those aspiring to make a living from travel photography, it's a sad fact that the boring shots are the shots that are going to make you money.

- Martin Parr

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

- 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

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

Personally, I don't take holidays; I go on trips. My idea of relaxing is taking a trip that isn't commissioned. I'll work just as hard, but without that nagging pressure of fulfilling a commission. Now that's what I call a holiday.

- Martin Parr

Most of us, when we go out with a camera in our own country, try to find exotic subject matter to photograph.

- 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

I would urge everyone to start looking at the world in a different way. Spend some time looking at everyday objects, at their design, their shape, their individual characteristics. Think ahead and imagine their significance.

- 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

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

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

- 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

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

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

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

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

- Martin Parr

My biggest television weakness is 'Dragons' Den.'

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

- Martin Parr

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

- 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

You can't shoot in sepia, so converting into black and white and then into brown makes everything feel less real.

- Martin Parr

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

- Martin Parr

I pride myself in being an aficionado of the British seaside. Throughout my career, I have visited and worked in many of the famous British resorts, from Great Yarmouth to Largs.

- 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

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

- Martin Parr

Dictators are interesting, no?

- 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

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

- 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

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

- 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

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

- Martin Parr

By default, I am a travel photographer. I work on a combination of commissions and personal projects that take me around the world.

- Martin Parr

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

- Martin Parr

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

- Martin Parr

I am not as cross about Thatcher now as I was in the '80s. Begrudgingly, I can see that some of her policies helped modernise Britain.

- 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

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

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

- 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

As we travel around Britain, I am convinced most of us cannot really appreciate what we are seeing. We take too much for granted, because it is all so familiar.

- Martin Parr

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

- Martin Parr

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

- Martin Parr

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

- Martin Parr

Taking photos is a form of collecting.

- Martin Parr

Tourism is the biggest industry in the world.

- Martin Parr

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

- Martin Parr

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

- Martin Parr

I photograph wealth.

- Martin Parr

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

- 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

The knack is to find your own inspiration and take it on a journey to create work that is personal and revealing.

- 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

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

- 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

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

- Martin Parr

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

- Martin Parr

The idea of England in decline is very attractive.

- 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

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

- Martin Parr