Views & Reviews Seasons Greetings Return to Manchester Martin Parr Photography

Martin Parr’s “Return to Manchester”
Manchester Art Gallery presents Martin Parr’s career-spanning works that depict how the lives of Mancunians have changed but also a continuity in how their lives are lived

Martin Parr

Martin Parr’s long-term fascination with the subjects of leisure, consumption and communication have sealed his status as a world-renowned photographer whose colorful images depict the times we live in today. After moving from his hometown of Surrey, he studied at Manchester Polytechnic (now Manchester Metropolitan University) in Manchester from 1970-73, where the diversity of the city inspired him to begin examining national characteristics. Since then, Martin has revisited Manchester numerous times over the last 40 years to document the lives of Mancunians. This exhibition brings together a selection of photographs from his many visits to the city: black and white images of June Street, Salford in 1972; Yates Wine Lodges in 1982-3; color photos of people shopping in 1986 and 2008.

"I remember so well arriving into Manchester in 1970, having traveled from the safety of suburban Surrey. It was exciting and felt very real. "
- Martin Parr


Martin Parr Spending Time. Salford. England, GB. 1986. © Martin Parr | Magnum PhotosLicense |

Manchester Art Gallery commissioned Martin to make a new body of work on Manchester City and its inhabitants in 2018. The photographs were produced during a number of visits where Parr assimilated himself in the city’s culture through a diverse range of meetings with people doing everyday activities: shopping, in hairdressers, in Mosques, in cafes, at markets, in factories, at parties, playing sport and in the gay village. His observations extended to capturing scientists doing ground-breaking research at Manchester University, and fans of the city’s world-famous football teams. A number of these images will enter the gallery’s collection.


Martin Parr Yates's Wine Lodges. Although well priced in comparison to their competitors, these wine lodges acquired a distinctly dismal reputation with typical characteristics of a working class customer, eld (...)

Martin Parr © Adrian McGarry

ADRIAN MCGARRY
CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY & ART

MARTIN PARR RETURNS TO MANCHESTER
November 22, 2018

In ‘Return to Manchester’, a major exhibition currently showing at Manchester Art Gallery, acclaimed British documentary photographer Martin Parr reveals a portrait of a rapidly changing urban landscape. I was lucky enough to catch him in conversation with Manchester Art Gallery’s Senior Curator Natasha Howes, an event to mark the opening of the exhibition that runs until April 2019.

The career-spanning exhibition includes Parr’s earliest work from his student days at Manchester Polytechnic, photographs of Prestwich Mental Hospital in 1972, Yates’s Wine Lodge in the early 80’s amongst many other projects. His latest Manchester images, a commissioned body of work by the gallery, was created in 2018 to bring the story up to the current day.

Martin Parr is one of the best-known documentary photographers of his generation. With over 100 books published, and dozens more edited by him, his photographic legacy is already assured. Parr has been a member of the Magnum agency since 1994 and was President from 2013 – 2017. His work has been collected by many of major museums including the Tate, the Pompidou and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He has created the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol, to preserve the legacy of his and other photographer’s work focused on the British Isles. Parr gladly accepts commissions from the likes of Gucci to further fund the foundation.

Return to Manchester chronicles a diversity and growth of a city from northern postwar Britain to today’s consumer-driven culture, it reveals people’s passions, skills, relationships, religions, quirks in everyday environments – a celebration of the city I grew up in and that I remember even more vividly through the images on show.





Martin Parr and The Martin Parr Foundation.


Voordat Magnum-fotograaf Martin Parr (1952) beroemd werd met zijn even geestige als genadeloze kleurenfoto's van de Britse (consumptie)maatschappij, studeerde hij van 1970 tot 1973 fotografie in Manchester. Daar woonde hij in een volkse arbeidersbuurt en fotografeerde hij de 'working class' op straat en in bars, in kapsalons en thuis. In opdracht van de Manchester Art Gallery ging Parr dit jaar terug om de veranderde stad vast te leggen. De galerie toont die foto's nu samen met zijn vroege zwart-wit beelden en zijn eerste kleurenfoto's uit de jaren 70 en 80. Martin Parr, Return to Manchester, t/m 22 april 2019 in de Manchester Art Gallery
6 december 2018


Moss Side, Manchester, 1970. Toen Parr in zijn studententijd in de wijk Moss Side woonde, werd begonnen met de sloop van de arbeidershuizen.
 ©Martin Parr/Magnum Photos/Rocket Gallery Martin Parr, Manchester, Moss Side. 1970. © Martin Parr / Magnum Photos / Rocket Gallery


In een van de vroegste kleurenfoto's van Parr, gemaakt in 1971, zien we dat hij als student al oog had voor geestige taferelen. De vrouw staat in een rood broekpak naast een rode brievenbus bij een rode auto. Op de achtergrond zien we een rode deur met daarboven rode letters.
 ©Martin Parr/Magnum Photos/Rocket Gallery


Moss Side, Manchester, 1972. Parr fotografeerde tijdens zijn studie veel in de bars van de ruige volkswijk Moss Side, waar hij woonde als student.
 ©Martin Parr/Magnum Photos/Rocket Gallery


June Street, Salford, 1973. Martin Parr maakte samen met mede-student Daniel Meadows een serie over de bewoners van June Street, een straat in een volkswijk die op de nominatie stond gesloopt te worden.
 © Martin Parr en Daniel Meadows


Salford, England, 1986. Een van de eerste foto's van Parr waarin hij het consumentisme van de Britten onder de loep neemt.
 ©Martin Parr/Magnum Photos/Rocket Gallery


Yates Wine Lodges, Ashton-Under-Lyne, 1983. Parr fotografeerde de gasten van de Yates Wine Lodges, een keten van pubs die voornamelijk werden bezocht door vaak working-class oudere mannen en vrouwen, die er hun wijntje dronken, aangelengd met suiker en water.
 ©Martin Parr/Magnum Photos/Rocket Gallery


In het Royal Nawaab restaurant in de wijk Levenshulme in Manchester wordt een verjaardag gevierd, 2018.
 ©Martin Parr/Magnum Photos/Rocket Gallery


Manchester, England, 1981. Na zijn studietijd begin jaren 70 zou Parr vele malen terugkeren naar Manchester om er te fotograferen. ,,Ik voel me hier gewoon heel prettig", zei Parr in een interview. ,,Niets ten nadele van Bristol, waar ik woon, maar in Manchester ervaar ik een warmte die ik nergens anders tegenkom."
 ©Martin Parr/Magnum Photos/Rocket Gallery


In kapsalon House of Finesse in de wijk Urmston wordt de bruiloft van prins Harry en Meghan Markle, op 19 mei 2018, gevierd.
 ©Martin Parr/Magnum Photos/Rocket Gallery