Very Modern And Rather Ugly by Martin Parr at Foam

Bringing together a selection of his most iconic works, the exhibition celebrates Parr’s unmistakable way of seeing, witty societal observations and enduring fascination with the role of photography in everyday life.

Overview

Parr is celebrated for his ability to make the familiar look strange and the boring interesting. Through his vibrant visual language, he transformed seemingly banal scenes into incisive reflections on modern society. Central to his life’s work were themes of consumption, cultural identity, tourism and class, which he explored over decades across both national and international contexts

Central to the exhibition is Parr’s iconic series Common Sense (1999), an installation of 270 colour-saturated close-up photographs that zoom in on global consumer culture – from fast food and tourist sites to personal decoration and social stereotypes.

The series Autoportrait (2002) brings together three decades of portraits of Martin Parr – taken by street photographers, studio photographers, and photo booths all over the world – through which he sought to highlight the many different shapes, forms and traditions of global portrait photography.

Visitors will also be able to discover The Non-Conformists (mid-1970s), his early documentation of rural English communities in black and white, and his breakthrough series The Last Resort (1983-85), which marks Parr’s turn to colour and focus on the British seaside. In addition to the photographic series, the exhibition will feature a reading room in which visitors can immerse themselves in Parr’s numerous photobook publications. 

About The Artist

Martin Parr (1952–2025) was born in Epsom, United Kingdom, and studied photography at Manchester Polytechnic. In 1994, Parr became a full member of Magnum Photos and served as the agency’s president from 2013 to 2017. Alongside his photographic practice, he was active as a curator, editor and professor. Having published over 150 books of his own and edited another 30 in his lifetime, Parr built a long-lasting legacy. His work has been collected by many of the world’s leading museums, from Tate in the UK to the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2017, the Martin Parr Foundation was established in Bristol to support emerging, established and under-recognised photographers whose work focuses on Great Britain and Ireland.