Martin Parr, a photographer known for his humor and ability to capture some of Britain’s distinctive, zany idiosyncrasies, died on Saturday, his agency announced. He was 73.
Mr. Parr died at home in Bristol, the agency, Magnum Photos, said, but did not give a cause of death. He told Esquire magazine this year that he had been diagnosed with myeloma, a type of blood cancer, and that it was incurable.
Raised in the southeastern English county of Surrey, Mr. Parr began photographing as a child — his first picture, he told Esquire, was of his father on a frozen stream in winter — and knew by the time he was a teenager that he hoped to pursue the trade full time.
He went on to have a wide-ranging career that spanned decades, establishing a reputation for capturing the quirkiness of English life and creating a sort of cottage industry as Britain’s (perhaps) most British photographer.
“I like the craziness of the English, with all their hobbies and their interests,” he told Esquire. “The race meetings, the agricultural shows, the summer fêtes. We are an eccentric lot.”
Beyond Britain, Mr. Parr documented American greasy spoons and glamorous tourists in Paris, trademarking a hyperrealism that could make small details loom larger than life.
“I’m not interested in food per se,” he said in 2000, trailed by a New York Times journalist as he documented some of New York’s greasiest midtown eateries. “I’m interested in using it as a way to look at the social fabric.
“What better way of critiquing the excesses of America? To show the torso of a fat woman with an enormous milkshake speaks volumes about America without having to show anyone’s face.”
Mr. Parr’s approach to photography was often tongue-in-cheek, focusing on the work as much for its entertainment value as its documentary capacity. His reliance on ambiguity, emblematic of Post-Modernism, rubbed some the wrong way — in “Autoportrait” a photography series in which Mr. Parr had local artists across the world take his portrait in their personal styles, he never cracked a smile.
“That’s how you make things funny,” he told The Times. “By deadpan. Looking serious. If you’re laughing in a photo, it’s never going to be a funny photo.”
Mr. Parr published more than 100 books over the course of his career, though he rarely accepted praise for such towering statistics. He created the Martin Parr Foundation, a community photographic center in Bristol that also houses his personal archives.
“I told myself that people take my work seriously, and I’m paid to do my hobby,” he told The Times upon the opening of a solo exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London. “It’s a wonderful privilege, and I’m grateful to have these opportunities to get the work out.”
Mr. Parr is survived by his wife Susie, his daughter Ellen, his sister Vivien and his grandson George, according to his studio.
Ali Watkins covers international news for The Times and is based in Belfast.
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