Martin Parr Quotes

If you photograph for a long time, you get to understand such things as body language. I often do not look at people I photograph, especially afterwards. Also when I want a photo, I become somewhat fearless, and this helps a lot. There will always be someone who objects to being photographed, and when this happens you move on.

I go straight in very close to people and I do that because it's the only way you can get the picture. You go right up to them. Even now, I don't find it easy. I don't announce it. I pretend to be focusing elsewhere. If you take someone's photograph it is very difficult not to look at them just after. But it's the one thing that gives the game away. I don't try and hide what I'm doing - that would be folly.

All photography is propaganda.

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

With photography, I like to create a fiction out of reality. I try and do this by taking society's natural prejudice and giving this a twist.

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

You have to take a lot of bad pictures. Dont' be afraid to take bad pictures... You have to take a lot of bad pictures in order to know when you've got a good one.

You can read a lot about a country by looking at its beaches: across cultures, the beach is that rare public space in which all absurdities and quirky national behaviors can be found.

I see things going on before my eyes and I photograph them as they are, without trying to change them. I don't warn people beforehand. That's why I'm a chronicler. I speak about us and I speak about myself.

The easy bit is picking up a camera and pointing and shooting. But then you have to decide what it is you’re trying to say and express.

You can't learn passion, either you've got it or you haven't.

We are drowning in images. Photography is used as a propaganda tool, which serves to sell products and ideas. I use the same approach to show aspects of reality.

I am what I photograph.

Part of the role of photography is to exaggerate, and that is an aspect that I have to puncture. I do that by showing the world as I really find it.

Most of the pictures we consume are propaganda.

Photos tend to organize chaos, to define what we're doing here. It is essential that individuals' voices depict the world around us, as we are increasingly controlled by large institutions, large companies and large systems.

For those aspiring to make a living from travel photography, it's a sad fact that the boring shots are the shots that are going to make you money.

I accept that all photography is voyeuristic and exploitative, and obviously I live with my own guilt and conscience. It's part of the test and I don't have a problem with it.

Part of the role of photography is to exaggerate. Most of the photographs in your paper, unless they are hard news, are lies. Fashion pictures show people looking glamorous. Travel pictures show a place looking at its best, nothing to do with the reality... Most of the pictures we consume are propaganda.

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

I try to photograph my own and society's hypocrisy.

Unless it hurts, unless there’s some vulnerability there, I don’t think you’re going to get good photographs.

Work harder, get closer and be passionate about what you photograph.

When a mother takes pictures of her children on the beach, she doesn't take herself for an artist; she does it for love, which is an excellent reason, from my point of view.

There are two parts to the process: taking the picture and finding ways of using it.

To ask people's permission to take their pictures? Sometimes it feels right to ask, but I will not ask, unless it is essential to do so. If you asked all the time, you would miss everything. With the exception of portraits, it is generally bad news if people are looking at the camera.

Choosing sepia is all to do with trying to make the image look romantic and idealistic. It's sort of a soft version of propaganda.

Criticism is hypocrisy; society is hypocrisy. I'm a tourist. I'm a consumer. I do the things that I photograph and can be criticized of.

Everyone is a photographer now, remember. That's the great thing about photography.

Magnum photographers were meant to go out as a crusade ... to places like famine and war and ... I went out and went round the corner to the local supermarket because this to me is the front line.

When I first started learning how to take photographs, you had to spend the first six months figuring out what an f-stop was. Now you just go and take pictures.

Taking photos is a form of collecting.

The danger is, you have a formula and you just repeat it.

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

Photography's central role is to be the absolute medium of the day. It is fantastic that there is no longer any technical intimidation.

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

Nobody thinks about technical issues anymore because cameras or camera phones take care of that automatically. On the other hand, you still have the option of controlling every technical aspect. It's the most accessible, democratic medium available in the world.

The knack is to find your own inspiration, and take it on a journey to create work that is personal and revealing.

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

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

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

Filming is always a challenge because I'm not used to it. But I approach it head-on. I'm not technically brilliant, but it's the spirit that counts.

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

I am a big fan of Jim Jarmusch and I do love big screen documentaries.

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

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

Dictators are interesting, no?

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.

I always take photographs when I attend a funeral. Most people there know who I am and expect me to be there with my camera.

Color was the palette of commercial photography and snapshot photography.