Interview by Matteo Pini
Portrait by Fabrizio Spucches

MP Utterly Lazy and Inattentive (2025) is your first autobiography, co-authored with Wendy Jones. How did it come together?

MPa Wendy put the whole package together. She’d done Grayson Perry’s autobiography, and about eight years ago, she had tried to do mine, but failed because I was reluctant to speak without having an image to go from. She came back and said, “Why don’t we try doing it with you selecting 150 images, you talk about them, and I’ll record it?” I said, “Yeah, let’s give it a try,” and it worked out. I went through my archives and picked the most pertinent images – some are familiar, and some are new. 

MP  In the book, the photographs and their chronology capture the shock of modernity, but also the presence by which extraordinary things – McDonald’s, the M1, Tesla – become ordinary. 

MPa I’ve been photographing for over 50 years now – society and the rest of the world have changed dramatically. Part of my job is to record these changes and turn them into photographs. The introduction of smartphones has meant we’re more locked into our own little worlds. If you go to any tourist site, people hardly look at things; they look through the viewfinder of their smartphone. It’s changed everything, probably for the worse, despite the amazing access to information that it’s given us. But the iPhone 15 is amazing, especially at night when there’s little light, it probably records better than my Canon DSLR. 

MP How has the development of camera technology progressed in your career? 

MPa I didn’t change over to digital until 2008, when they introduced the full-frame DSLR. That was really a breakthrough; suddenly the quality was much better. Now I can build and blow a photo up to the same size as I would with a six-by-seven negative. I’m glad to say goodbye to all those nasty darkroom chemicals. We used to just pour them down the sink – not very good for anything living. Give me the ease of a digital file any day. 

MP You mention in the book that your photography looks at the relationship between things, rather than the things themselves. Do you think there’s such a thing as a pure photo? 

MPa I don’t like the word pure, it sounds too simplistic. Good photographs are subjective; my opinion of things is turned into a photograph. In one sense, they’re neutral, and in another sense, I’m loading them with a big agenda. I like that contradiction.

MP In the book, you describe your collections, including a prolific assortment of USSR space dog merchandise. Is there any difference between collecting images and objects? 

MPa That’s right, my photography is a form of collecting, and I also collect a lot of photo books and prints. We have a foundation here in Bristol to promote other British photographers, to give them a platform. That's a big part of what I do. Collecting is an obsessive habit, and my biggest collection is the pictures that I’ve put together in my life as a photographer.

MP You also speak about the photographer as a kind of tourist. 

MPa I’m definitely a tourist.  My snobby side thinks I’m above being a tourist, but I sit in planes, I stay in a hotel room, and I carry my camera down to the site. I’ve captured a lot of tourist locations over the years; it’s one of my big obsessions. Many things that I’ve often criticised I do myself, and evidence of that is in the book.

MP Is it bad taste to be a tourist? 

MPa Maybe if you go to somewhere like Barcelona or Venice, these places that have had anti-tourist marches and are clearly overwhelmed with tourists. But then, why would someone not want to go to Venice? It’s such a beautiful place.

MP Generally, photographs tend to capture happy moments, but your subjects don’t smile.

MPa We don’t go around smiling all the time, but in photos – especially in family photos – everyone’s meant to smile. It’s one of the issues I have when I’m trying to do a serious portrait – asking people to stop smiling. 

MP Even if no one is smiling, there’s a lot of comedy in your photography. 

MPa There’s a lot of comedy in the world, so it would be impossible not to include it. I’m surprised you don’t see more comical images because it’s a crazy place out there. The best way to respond to it is to laugh. 

MP What’s the line between laughing with and laughing at? 

MPa That’s part of what I’m interested in doing. I can’t tell you, you can tell from the photos. But I’m not usually laughing at. I just notice things that I’m sure everybody else notices. We’re so used to seeing photographs in magazines. Everything looks too beautiful, but it’s all lies. 

MP How do you feel about your relationship to England? 

MPa It’s complicated. I love it and hate it at the same time. We all love the place that we’re from, but when I see these marches of right-wing people shouting, “no immigrants”, I get very depressed. 

MP When you’re looking at older work, like you do at the beginning of the book, how does it transform with age? 

MPa Some things become more interesting with age, like the way people dressed in the 1980s and 1970s. That’s an added bonus to the pictures that I take. They’re full of historical facts, if you like. How an image will appear to a future viewer is always at the back of my mind. 

MP You speak of the tempestuous relationship you had with Magnum Photos, who only let you in as a member in 1994. Is it all smoothed over now? 

MPa I guess so. The guy who led the anti-Parr brigade is dead now. I didn’t kill him, by the way. 

MP With the release of this book and the documentary I Am Martin Parr (2024), you’re putting a lens on yourself after having it on other people for so long. How does it feel?

MPa Not a problem, really. There will be people who won’t like this book, just as some people won’t like the film. I’m used to being criticised and just gently accept it. The English are very good at that. .