Beaches inspire Martin Parr’s committed photos

A series of images that at first glance looks like a banal souvenir photo album. However, Martin Parr’s beach photos sometimes even invite themselves into political discussions. Since the years in his native land, the British artist captures the moments of life of tourists on the July or August sand.

From Brazil to China, Martin Parr will take pictures of parasols, balloons, swimsuits and sunburns, each one more “kitsch” than the last, like an ironic “so British” message and cold jokes, always looking for the bizarre and the assumed voyeurism, he explains. Taking up certain codes of advertising visuals, this chronicler of modern times takes advantage of it, among other things and naturally, to point out the excesses of tourism and mass consumption.