Martin Parr Foundation

While I was at the RPS Headquarters for the Documentary Group Photo Scratch event I popped next door to visit the Martin Parr Foundation (MPF). Established in 2014, the foundation supports and preserves the legacy of photographers who made, and continue to make, important work focused on the British Isles.

Martin Parr Foundation Launch event, panel discussion on Photography’s role in 21st Century Britain. From left to right; Martin Parr, Frances Morris, Val Williams, Brett Rogers, Susanna Brown. 2017 © Martin Parr Foundation

The premises at Bristol’s Paintworks opened in 2017, supporting the foundation’s three main aims: to preserve the archive and legacy of Martin Parr; to hold a growing collection of works by selected British and Irish photographers, as well as images taken in the British Isles by international photographers; to house an expanding library of British and Irish photobooks. As well as renowned photographers, the MPF also highlights contemporaries of Martin Parr that haven’t received the recognition they deserve. The MPF increasingly supports emerging photographers through exhibitions, acquiring or commissioning work and by use of the foundation’s resources.

The gallery hosts around five exhibitions a year, all of them free, featuring photographs by contemporary British and Irish photographers as well as works from the collection. Past exhibitions have included Martin Parr’s Black Country Stories, Niall McDiarmid’s Town to Town and work by Paul Trevor and Document Scotland. Each year the gallery space hosts a show by MA photography students from the University of West England, just one of the ways the MPF tries to support emerging photographers.

‘Ffasiwn Magazine’ by Clémentine Schneidermann and Charlotte James, 2018 © Martin Parr Foundation

Earlier in 2019 MPF exhibited work by Clémentine Schneidermann and Charlotte James from their project ‘It’s Called Ffasiwn’, which was made in collaboration with children of the South Wales Valleys. To coincide with the exhibition, MPF and Bleak & Fabulous produced ‘Ffasiwn Magazine’ featuring work from the project, allowing it to reach a wider audience. MPF’s involvement in publishing continues with the current exhibition, Ian Weldon’s ‘I Am Not A Wedding Photographer’. The exhibition runs until 10 August 2019 with a photobook of the same name, produced by Bristol’s RRB Photobooks and MPF, presenting highlights from the show.

Untitled, from ‘I Am Not A Wedding Photographer’ © Ian Weldon

Photobooks are one of the most important ways that photographers present and disseminate their work to a wider international audience. They also serve as a valuable resource for research, informing the approach to the topics that consume photographers, with threads of influence running through time and around the world.

The Foundation houses Martin Parr’s archive spanning 45 years, together with the works of selected British and Irish photographers and images taken in the British Isles by international photographers. The library includes 5000 books by both British and Irish photographers as well as complete back catalogues of important publications, such as Creative Camera and Camera Work, for educational and research purposes. The library is open one day a week for MPF members, with help on hand to guide visitors through the collection of photobooks. Isaac Blease has been working as the catalogue manager for a few months; working his way through the collection to record cover photos and add keywords for subject, dates, medium, publisher etc. The resulting catalogue will be available at the foundation to help pinpoint library searches. There is also a selection from the catalogue on the Martin Parr Foundation website which is updated regularly with selected publications, objects, and prints from the collection.

Isaac took me through the collection of books picking out a range of publications, some familiar, others not so, to show points of interest and trace the threads through the shelves. I can’t reproduce the experience here, but the conversation covered: Roger Mayne’s inclusion in ‘Uppercase 5’ a design publication by Theo Crosby from the 50s and 60’s; Tony Ray-Jones’ ‘A Day Off’ with images capturing the quirks of British culture that have influenced Martin Parr and many others; Humphrey Spender’s unique view of the thirties - ‘Worktown People’; and then ‘Strange and Familiar’, the book that accompanied the 2016 Barbican exhibition curated by Martin Parr that explored how international photographers captured the social, cultural & political identity of the UK. A section of the library has a growing collection of books by international artists such as Susan Meiselas and Markéta Luskačová that expand on this idea.

Screenshot from Martin Parr in conversation with Bruce Gilden for the MPF Sofa Session series. 2018 © Alex Parkyn-Smith / Martin Parr Foundation

The MPF hosts an extensive programme of artist talks, screenings, and workshops throughout the year. Many of the talks are free and all are recorded for the archive, providing an opportunity to learn about photography that is hard to beat. Part of the archive is available on the MPF website, including book dummies for Richard Billingham’s ‘Ray’s a Laugh’ and Chris Killip’s ‘In Flagrante’. There is also a growing series of recordings of artists in conversation with Martin Parr; to date Vinca Petersen, Bruce Gilden, Siân Davey and Jem Southam have all contributed to the ‘Sofa Sessions’ series.

Further information on the Martin Parr Foundation can be found online at www.martinparrfoundation.org, with the latest information on events via the MPF twitter and instagram accounts. Many thanks to Isaac Blease and Jon McCall for hosting my visit and everyone else at MPF for the warm welcome.

Dave Thorp