Top 35 Martin Parr Quotes

I am kept awake by the list of possibilities for shooting more photos and deciding what I must prioritise next.

We live in a difficult but inspiring world, and there is so much out there that I want to record.

My biggest television weakness is ‘Dragons‘ Den.’

You can easily take photographs at a wedding – no one would question it. But funerals are different.

I am not a huge follower of music and tend to like one CD and play it to death, usually when I am washing up.

Photography is the simplest thing in the world, but it is incredibly complicated to make it really work.

My black-and-white work is more of a celebration, and the color work became more of a critique of society.

The thing about tourism is that the reality of a place is quite different from the mythology of it.

Places change all the time, and the type of people who live there change.

Photographers never want to talk about the fact that they may well be in decline. It’s the greatest taboo subject of all.

The ability for us to laugh at ourselves is Britain‘s saving grace.

Dictators are interesting, no?

Margaret Thatcher was very good for the arts in so far as it gave people a real focus for something to be against.

I love curating, because I’m lucky and privileged that I have a platform and I can share my discoveries with other people.

When someone says to you, ‘Oh, I don’t take a good picture,’ what they mean is they haven‘t come to terms with how they look. They take a fine picture, it’s just that their image of how they think they look is not in touch with the reality.

You can’t shoot in sepia, so converting into black and white and then into brown makes everything feel less real.

There are 65 to 70 photography galleries in New York alone. In the U.K., there are no more than five, and they’re all in London.

If you go to the supermarket and buy a package of food and look at the photo on the front, the food never looks like that inside, does it? That is a fundamental lie we are sold every day.

I avoid Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and if I need to communicate with someone, I email direct.

Modern technology has taken the angst out of achieving the perfect shot. For me, the only thing that counts is the idea behind the image: what you want to see and what you’re trying to say. The idea is crucial. You have to think of something you want to say and expand upon it.

I would urge everyone to start looking at the world in a different way. Spend some time looking at everyday objects, at their design, their shape, their individual characteristics. Think ahead and imagine their significance.

The trouble with Hollywood films is that they always have a pleasant ending.

I get up early and open my emails, write cheques, and answer the phone; whatever needs to be done.

Photography is, by its nature, exploitative. It’s whether you use this process with a sense of responsibility or not. I feel that I do so. My conscience is clear.

I think the ordinary is a very under-exploited aspect of our lives because it is so familiar.

Taking photos is a form of collecting.

I do read many of the photography magazines from the U.K. and abroad.

I don’t like being flattered. It doesn’t suit my English sensibilities. Remember, we are the great country of understatement.

I am away so much, so I rarely see live TV, but I use iPlayer to catch programmes.

I never think of photographs as being individual. Always as a group.

Personally, I don’t take holidays; I go on trips. My idea of relaxing is taking a trip that isn’t commissioned. I’ll work just as hard, but without that nagging pressure of fulfilling a commission. Now that’s what I call a holiday.

I have been photographing people dancing for 20 or 30 years now, and I think I will eventually do a book of dancing photos.

I would drown in objects if I didn’t have the ability to photograph them.

Wealthy people have not disappeared, they are just not so willing to show off their wealth.

When I visited Vietnam for Oxfam, the thing that really struck me was how the local farmers had to prepare to evacuate or climb to their mezzanines with their valuable family possessions.