Early Works (Second Edition)

Martin Parr's Early Works, presents comprehensive overview of Parr’s formulative black and white work. The photographs were taken between 1970 and 1984, and many were previously unpublished until of the first edition of the book in 2019. Parr is primarily known for his colour photography, this early monochrome work reveals the foundations of his career and practice. This new revised edition, with updated images, adds breadth and perspective to the photographer’s prolific body of work. 

The book contains many of Parr’s familiar early images from his series The Non Conformists, Bad Weather and A Fair Day. The Non Conformists, Parr’s first major body of work was shot between 1975 – 1979 and demonstrates an already formed wry sense of humour as Parr documented the town of Hebden Bridge showing traditional life in decline. Bad Weather was Parr’s first monograph and acted as a survey of people of the UK and Ireland going about their lives in typically inclement weather. In A Fair Day, Parr captured life in Ireland of the early 1980s from abandoned Morris Minors to rural dance halls and newly build bungalows to provide a view of a society caught between the past and the 20th century. The book also includes Parr’s lesser-known photographs taken in India and China in the mid-1980s, some of these previously unpublished, alongside other unseen works from this period shot across the British Isles.