Martin Parr

Featuring nearly 400 works spanning over 50 years of Martin Parr’s career, the exhibition Short & Sweet showcases 11 of his most significant series, offering a comprehensive retrospective of his sharp-witted, satirical, and incisive approach to documenting social realities.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

On March 14, 2025, Fotografiska Shanghai will collaborate with Magnum Photos to proudly present Short & Sweet, the first solo exhibition in China by legendary British photographer Martin Parr. More than just a visual journey, Short & Sweet, invites audiences to reflect on the transformations of contemporary society and the evolving symbols of culture.

The exhibition highlights three of Parr’s most celebrated series, TheNon-Conformists, Bad Weather, and The Last Resort, marking their first in-depth presentation in Shanghai. The Non-Conformists captures the fading traditional communities of Northern England, offering a poignant reflection on industrialization’s impact on daily life. Bad Weather documents the British people’s resilience and humor in extreme weather conditions, exploring the interaction between humans and nature with Parr’s signature perspective. The Last Resort presents exaggerated, vibrant scenes of seaside holiday resorts, revealing the chaos and absurdity of leisure culture through bold color contrasts and theatrical compositions.

These series exemplify Parr’s unique photographic language—where irony and humor turn everyday moments into surreal reflections of society.

This exhibition also highlights Parr’s critique of globalization and consumer culture, featuring some of his most influential series. Small World explores the impact of globalization on tourism, exposing the tension between cultural homogenization and local identity. Common Sense presents extreme close-ups of consumer goods, offering a satirical take on the excesses of consumer society. The Institutions turns the camera on power structures and their symbolic imagery, analyzing the deeper logic of social operations. Life’s a Beach humorously dissects global beach culture, using sharp visual storytelling to reflect on social behavior.

A special section of the exhibition is dedicated to Parr’s photographs of China, showcasing his perspective on the country’s social landscape and its dynamic transformations. These works not only document China’s evolving society but also demonstrate Parr’s keen ability to capture the complexities of cultural identity and modernization.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Martin Parr born in 1952 in Epsom, Surrey, in England, over the years, Martin Parr has become one of the most distinctive voices in visual culture for more than 30 years.

Approaching photography as a young man thanks to the support and the inspiration of his grandfather, a keen amateur photographer, Parr studied photography at Manchester Polytechnic. Even when he devoted himself to teaching, he never abandoned his passion and entered numerous photographic competitions, beginning to make a name for himself in the industry.

Like many of his contemporaries, Parr was inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson, but he managed to develop his own personal style, which enabled him to join the Magnum Agency in 1994.

Known for his use of garish colours and esoteric composition, he has studied cultural peculiarities around the world from Japan to America, Europe, and his home country of Britain, also making numerous trips to China since 1985. The themes of leisure, consumption and communication have occupied him for much of his career, all of which are explored with a penetrating irony.

Parr has published over 100 books of his own work and edited another 30. His work has appeared in solo and group exhibitions around the world. Parr has also curated many acclaimed shows including Strange and Familiar in March 2016, at the Barbican, London, which examined how international photographers from 1930s onwards have photographed in the UK.

Over the years, Parr has received numerous awards over the years including the Sony World Photography Award for Outstanding Contribution to Photography in April 2017, the Erich Salomon Prize in 2006 and the Baume et Mercier award in 2008 in recognition of his professional career and contributions to contemporary photography. In Autumn 2017 the Martin Parr Foundation opened in Bristol and, two years after, Parr’s major exhibition opened at the National Portrait Gallery.

As photographer, filmmaker and collector, Parr has defined a generation.