Celebrated British documentary photographer Martin Parr has died at his home in the western English city Bristol, his foundation announced on Sunday. He was 73.
Famous for his kitschy colour-saturated images, Parr had a sharp eye for mundane oddities, typified in his humorous snapshots of bronzed beachgoers and selfie-snapping holidaymakers.
“It is with great sadness that we announce that Martin Parr (1952-2025) died yesterday at home in Bristol,” a statement on The Martin Parr Foundation’s website said.
“Martin will be greatly missed,” it added, noting he is survived by his wife Susie, his daughter Ellen, his sister Vivien and his grandson George.
“The family asks for privacy at this time,” the statement said.
It added the foundation and Magnum Photos, the prestigious agency he had been a member of since 1994, “will work together to preserve and share Martin’s legacy”.
No further details around the circumstances of his death were provided.
The Guardian newspaper said, however, that Parr had been diagnosed with cancer in May 2021.
Although Parr travelled the globe during his decades-spanning career — snapping images everywhere from North Korea and Albania to Japan and Russia — he spoke of relishing more everyday settings like supermarkets.
He kept working into his 70s, recently releasing his latest book, an autobiographical collection of photographs together with wry commentary called “Utterly Lazy and Inattentive”.
The title stemmed from a French teacher’s damning school report on him when he was 14.
The autobiography charts his journey from son of a birdwatching father to internationally acclaimed professional photographer.
In an interview with AFP published last month, he argued the world has never been more in need of the kind of satire captured in his images because many people are too wealthy and their lifestyles are unsustainable.
“The state we’re all in is appalling,” he said in Paris. “We’re all too rich. We’re consuming all these things in the world. And we can’t. It’s unsustainable.”
