martin parr

Martin Parr exploded into the public eye in the late eighties with a set of startling, ultra-saturated colour images of the British seaside. They made headlines and scandalised the photography establishment, earning the ire of Henri Cartier-Bresson himself. Ever since, critics have sought to make sense of Martin Parr: he’s ‘the quintessential anorak’; ‘the emperor of bad taste’; and, to some, ‘a sworn enemy’. All the while, Parr himself has remained inscrutable, focused on his work; continuing relentlessly to document the world in all its gaudy eccentricity.

Now in his early seventies, Martin has chosen to tell his story, in his own words, for the first time. Through 170 photographs, each accompanied by short recollections and reflections, Martin recounts his life and art. He shows us the most important sights, scenes, people, and places he has photographed, and reveals what each image means to him. The result is the definitive autobiography of the world’s greatest living photographer. But, as Utterly Lazy unfolds, Martin tells another story, too: the story of us all. For Martin has spent a lifetime capturing the major historic moments of the past seven decades, as well as the minutiae of everyday life – seeing the details, big and small, that pass most of us by. As Martin’s friend and co-author, the writer Wendy Jones, puts it: ‘Martin is a photographic Forrest Gump… his unique gift is to be a man who notices. And we can see too, when he shows us’.

Utterly Lazy and Inattentive: Martin Parr in Words and Pictures is published September 4 2025 by Penguin Press.