Photographs by Martin Parr

Essay by Rogelio Villarreal

- Book Synopsis

For much of his career, Martin Parr has excelled at skewering the eccentricities and peculiarities of contemporary national culture in his native Great Britain and beyond—in particular those having to do with food, tourism, bad fashion choices, and . . . more food.

On a recent exploratory trip to Mexico, Parr was struck not only by the native cul ture, but also by the clear impact of Amer ica’s pop culture and economy on Mexican life—the juxtaposition of Mickey Mouse with brightly colored saints, Nike logos with Day of the Dead skulls, and Coca Cola with cacti. The resulting pictures are Parr’s first new thematic series of photographs to be published in book form since The Phone Book (2002).

Mexico presents his journey into and beyond the country’s clichés. We are at once in recognizable territory—many of the visual themes will be familiar to Parr fans, includ ing colorful and mocking close-ups of food, hats, signs, and souvenirs, garishly shot with medical efficiency. Yet, there are new motifs here, too. The series includes portraits of working men sporting baseball caps with local and American brand names. What is unusual for Parr is that he also grips us with straight records of human faces, with pho tographer and subject both in the act of mutual contemplation.

Parr’s Mexico photographs are typically comic, balancing affection and rudeness toward his subjects, while a darker underly ing theme emerges—as in much of his later work—of the corruption of authentic cultural forms by global consumer culture. This work both critiques and celebrates this corrup­tion. As he puts it, “What I am saying is that it’s a good and a bad thing. I’m constantly trying to express ambiguity. And that’s what photography does very well.”

- Artist / Writer Biography

MARTIN PARRis a key figure in the world of photography, recognized as a brilliant satirist of contemporary life. Author of over thirty photography books, including Common Sense, Our True Intent Is All for Your Delight, and Boring Postcards, his photographs have been collected by museums worldwide, including the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, and the Tate Modern, London. His retrospective continues to tour major museums around the world since opening at the Barbican Art Gallery, London, in 2002 and he was featured in Cruel and Tender, the Tate Mod­ern’s major survey of photography in 2003.

ROGELIO VILLARREAL is a Mexican cultural critic and iconoclast. He is the Editorial Director of Replicante magazine, published in Mexico City.

© Martin Parr