Martin Parr: Life’s a Beach

Following on the heels of Martin Parr's limited-edition, album-style publication Life's a Beach, Aperture now presents this beach-friendly mini edition. Parr has been photographing the topic of the beach for many decades, documenting sunbathers, rambunctious swimmers caught mid-plunge and the eternal sandy picnic. His international career, in fact, could well be traced to the publication of The Last Resort (1986), which depicted the seaside resort of New Brighton, near Liverpool. What is perhaps less known is that this obsession has led Parr to photograph beaches around the world. This compilation, his first on the topic, presents photos of beachgoers on far-flung shores, including Argentina, Brazil, China, Spain, Italy, Latvia, Japan, the United States, Mexico, Thailand, and of course, the U.K. The compilation brings to the forefront Parr's engagement with a cherished subject matter—that rare public space in which general absurdities and local quirks seamlessly fuse together. This book shows Parr at his best, startling us with moments of captured absurdity and immersing us in rituals and traditions associated with beach life the world over.

Format: Hardback
Number of pages: 123
Publication date: 2013-05-31
Measurements: 8.4 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
ISBN: 9781597112130

Parr’s images captures the constantly changing theater of sandy seasides, from surfers and sunbathers to picnickers and newspaper readers. Tropical prints frame images shot in Parr’s journalistic style, creating a nostalgic aesthetic that recalls a timeworn photo album. –Surface Magazine
A series of often hilarious beach tableaux—from grotesque sunbathers to bizarre shade contraptions and socks and sandals—Parr delivers a gentle mockery of humankind and their concepts of leisure. A colour-saturated collection, it charts four decades of interactions between people and the seashore across the world; from Italy to India to Australia –The Sydney Morning Herald
Parr has photographed beach culture for decades, and this beach-bag size collection captures quirky national behaviors around the globe. –The New York Times Book Review

Martin Parr is a key figure in the world of photography, recognized as a brilliant satirist of contemporary life. He has published over seventy photobooks of his photographs, including The Non-Conformists (Aperture, 2013), Black Country Stories (2014), and We Love Britain (2014). His work is also in the collections of museums worldwide, including the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum; and Tate Modern, London. Parr is a member of Magnum Photos.