Photoink Hyundai MGF Building, ground floor. 1 Jhandewalan, Faiz Road 110005 New Delhi Inde
This exhibition marks the first occasion for the internationally renowned British photographer, Martin Parr’s works to be seen in India. Parr is amongst the most influential photographers of our age, known for his innovative imagery and oblique approach to social documentary. This exhibition brings together photographs made both in Britain and India, examining his keen observations of people and particular aspects of culture.
Parr’s curiosity about the world brought a lively irreverence in the world of photography from which it is still recovering. Imbued with humour, irony and satire, Parr’s photographs make him an unusual documentarist. His photographs of the British working class in The Last Resort (1986) were highly controversial and he was accused of being voyeuristic, a tag he refuses to defend even today. Parr brought noise and subversion to photography. He coloured it with a saturated palette using fill-flash and celebrated the demise of the perfectly composed frame. His fascination for food and in particular junk food resulted in a series, British Food (1995), which heightened the debate around what people ate. Parr’s photographs are a sharp commentary on gluttony and the excesses of junk food culture. In 1994 Parr joined the legendary agency ‘Magnum’ and continues to be one of its celebrated photographers. Parr has traveled the world in search of new subjects and his idiosyncratic gaze has not escaped India. Martin Parr in India 1984–2009, a book that will also be released during this exhibition, mirrors his evolution as a documentarist of the banal and everyday life.
Martin Parr’s relationship with photo books is extraordinary: he has been extensively published, has edited photo books and has been regarded as one amongst the most significant collectors of photo books in the world. Photoink is delighted to add another book, Martin Parr in India 1984–2009, to his ever-growing basket.