Martin Parr Quotations

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Tourism is the biggest industry in the world.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

I love curating, because I'm lucky and privileged that I have a platform and I can share my discoveries with other people.

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

Margaret Thatcher was very good for the arts in so far as it gave people a real focus for something to be against.

Photographers never want to talk about the fact that they may well be in decline. It's the greatest taboo subject of all.

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.

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

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

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.

When I fly British Airways, I can't help but read the free Daily Mail, which makes me glad I am leaving the country.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

If there is any jarring at all in my photographs, it's because we are so used to ingesting pictures of everywhere looking beautiful.

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.

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

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.

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

The idea of England in decline is very attractive.

If you photograph for a long time, you get to understand such things as body language. I often do not look at people I photograph, especially afterwards. Also when I want a photo, I become somewhat fearless, and this helps a lot. There will always be someone who objects to being photographed, and when this happens you move on.

I go straight in very close to people and I do that because it's the only way you can get the picture. You go right up to them. Even now, I don't find it easy. I don't announce it. I pretend to be focusing elsewhere. If you take someone's photograph it is very difficult not to look at them just after. But it's the one thing that gives the game away. I don't try and hide what I'm doing - that would be folly.

All photography is propaganda.

You can read a lot about a country by looking at its beaches: across cultures, the beach is that rare public space in which all absurdities and quirky national behaviors can be found,

You can't learn passion, either you've got it or you haven't.

Most of the pictures we consume are propaganda.

With photography, I like to create a fiction out of reality. I try and do this by taking society's natural prejudice and giving this a twist.

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.

There are two parts to the process: taking the picture and finding ways of using it.

I see things going on before my eyes and I photograph them as they are, without trying to change them. I don't warn people beforehand. That's why I'm a chronicler. I speak about us and I speak about myself.

I am what I photograph.

Photos tend to organize chaos, to define what we're doing here. It is essential that individuals' voices depict the world around us, as we are increasingly controlled by large institutions, large companies and large systems.

We are drowning in images. Photography is used as a propaganda tool, which serves to sell products and ideas. I use the same approach to show aspects of reality.

I try to photograph my own and society's hypocrisy.

Taking photos is a form of collecting.

The danger is, you have a formula and you just repeat it.

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.

Part of the role of photography is to exaggerate. Most of the photographs in your paper, unless they are hard news, are lies. Fashion pictures show people looking glamorous. Travel pictures show a place looking at its best, nothing to do with the reality... Most of the pictures we consume are propaganda.

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

Everyone is a photographer now, remember. That's the great thing about photography.

When I first started learning how to take photographs, you had to spend the first six months figuring out what an f-stop was. Now you just go and take pictures.

Nobody thinks about technical issues anymore because cameras or camera phones take care of that automatically. On the other hand, you still have the option of controlling every technical aspect. It's the most accessible, democratic medium available in the world.

Work harder, get closer and be passionate about what you photograph.

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

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.

Color was the palette of commercial photography and snapshot photography.

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

Unless it hurts, unless there’s some vulnerability there, I don’t think you’re going to get good photographs.

You have to take a lot of bad pictures. Dont' be afraid to take bad pictures... You have to take a lot of bad pictures in order to know when you've got a good one.

Magnum photographers were meant to go out as a crusade ... to places like famine and war and ... I went out and went round the corner to the local supermarket because this to me is the front line.

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.

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

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.

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

The easy bit is picking up a camera and pointing and shooting. But then you have to decide what it is you’re trying to say and express.

When a mother takes pictures of her children on the beach, she doesn't take herself for an artist; she does it for love, which is an excellent reason, from my point of view.

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

I have been photographing people dancing for 20 or 30 years now, and I think I will eventually do a book of dancing photos.

Dictators are interesting, no?

In 1982 I bought the newly released Makina Plaubel 55mm fixed-lens camera. With this shift from 35mm to 6 x 7, I also changed from black and white to color. Later that year, I started my project on New Brighton called The Last Resort. However, the first project I shot in colour was composed of urban scenes from Liverpool. This image was on the second roll of film. It's the first good photo I made in this new chapter of my work.

Photography's central role is to be the absolute medium of the day. It is fantastic that there is no longer any technical intimidation.

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

I looked around at what my colleagues were doing, and asked myself, 'What relationship has it with what's going on?' I found there was a great distortion of contemporary life. Photographers were interested only in certain things. A visually interesting place, people who were either very rich or very poor, and nostalgia.

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

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.

I accept that all photography is voyeuristic and exploitative, and obviously I live with my own guilt and conscience. It's part of the test and I don't have a problem with it.

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

As artists get wealthier and more famous, often their work gets worse... I'm fascinated by the decline of artists. I suspect I'll be in decline myself. It's a fact of life.

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

From the moment the tourist enters the site, everyone has to be photographed in front of every feature of note.... The photographic record of the visit has almost destroyed the very notion of actually looking.