martin parr

THE ORDINARY, THE TACKY, THE TOURIST, AND THE SELF-MADE GLAMOROUS ALL OVER THE WORLD

interview

by ALEPH MOLINARI

autoportraits by MARTIN PARR

Martin Parr, Beijing, China, 2009

This is the last interview with the fantastic Martin Parr, conducted in late November, just two weeks before he sadly passed away in December. At that moment, we were already deep into the making of the magazine, and despite being ill, he generously agreed to do this interview.

We wanted to talk about how Martin perceived glamour within working-class culture and everyday life — how he captured it without nostalgia, filtering it through his singular mix of humor and British irony, always including himself in his own social critique  and never positioning himself above his subjects.

His extraordinary body of work is lucid, generous, and funny, while also deeply political without ever becoming moralistic. Publishing this interview is…