Martin Parr, famous British lifestyle photographer, has died at the age of 73. Martin Parr

Martin Parr, the British documentary photographer who captured the nation’s idiosyncrasies with clarity and humor, has died at the age of 73. He was diagnosed with cancer in May 2021.

A statement issued by the Martin Parr Foundation on Sunday said: “It is with great sadness that we announce that Martin Parr passed away yesterday at his home in Bristol.

“He is survived by his wife Susie, daughter Elaine, sister Vivian and grandson George. The family requests privacy at this time.

“The Martin Parr Foundation and Magnum Photos will work together to preserve and share Martin’s legacy. More information on this matter will follow in due course. Martin will be greatly missed.”

Known for his acute observations on the English class system, Parr’s photographs cover sunbathing, Tory clubs, village fetes and coffee mornings, often in bright colors and with more than a touch of humour. His famous 1986 photo book, The Last Resort: Portraits of New Brighton, captured working-class holidaymakers on the Wirral, Merseyside, and helped bring about a radical change in British documentary photography, from the gritty black-and-white style of the past to a more refined and colourful style.

“I take serious photographs disguised as entertainment,” Parr once said as a mantra.

He was born in Surrey in 1952 and grew up in Epsom. Inspired by his grandfather, an amateur photographer, Barr decided to pursue his own career path as a teenager. After training at Manchester Polytechnic, he spent a few seasons shooting at Butlin, initially alongside his counterpart Daniel Meadows. There he noticed the highly saturated, nostalgic postcards taken by John Hinde that would shape his later works.

After moving to Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire, Parr spent time photographing church communities there before meeting his wife, Susan Mitchell, and moving to the west coast of Ireland where he published several works including 1982’s Bad Weather, which was shot with an underwater camera.

When the couple moved to Wallasey on Merseyside, Parr produced what he later claimed to be his magnum opus. Inspired by color photographers from across the Atlantic such as Joel Meyerowitz and Stephen Shore, The Last Resort was the product of three summers spent on the beaches of New Brighton, photographing fish and chip wrappers, crying babies, and fairground rides.

He made his name but Last Resort wasn’t exactly well received. Parr faced significant criticism for the way he depicted working-class families from his distinctive point of view, with some decrying the unflattering focus on his subject’s sunburnt body and cheap vices. But for his admirers, it was all part of Barr’s unflinching outlook: he wanted to portray normal life as it was for most Britons, not be ashamed of it.

Furthermore, Barr could be more critical when it came to documenting the middle class of which he himself was a member. As Thatcher reshaped the country during the 1980s, Barr moved to Bristol with Susan and their new daughter, Ellen. There he turned his attention to the other end of society, the world of garden parties, shopping trips and public school open days that shaped his 1989 picture book The Cost of Living.

Thanks to his keen anthropological eye, Parr’s work can elicit multiple reactions—humour, sympathy, and disgust—often within the same image. It reflected his love/hate relationship with his homeland. Parr was a self-confessed “whiner”, yet he loved the nostalgic past of village greens and local fairs. His work was not overt campaigning, although he once told the Observer that “all photojournalists are left-wingers, and you can only do this job if you care about people.”

Throughout the 1990s, Barr’s work became more global through his critiques of the tourism industry (Small World) and global consumerism (Common Sense). There was also more controversy when he joined the prestigious photography agency Magnum in 1994.

The agency’s founder and mentor, Henri Cartier-Bresson, dismissed Barr’s work as “from another planet” compared to the artists on the roster at the time. Welsh Vietnam War photographer, Philip Jones Griffiths, campaigned against its recognition, saying: “Anyone who has been described as Margaret Thatcher’s favorite photographer certainly does not belong to Magnum.” In the end, Barr was accepted by a single-vote majority, a sign that the agency was slowly modernizing: Barr would continue to serve as Magnum’s president between 2014 and 2017.

In 2014, he launched the Martin Parr Foundation, which houses his own photo archive as well as his extensive collection of British and Irish photographs by other artists. Parr was not only a photographer, but also a collector of picture books, postcards and odd memorabilia. His 2019 book Space Dogs: The Story of Famous Canine Astronauts includes a collection of custom tools for the likes of Leica, Belka and Strelka. His collection of Saddam Hussein’s watches also became a book in 2004.

But photography itself has always been Barr’s greatest obsession. “You have to be brave if you want to be a photographer,” he once said. “There is no time for intimidation.”