British photographer Martin Parr's trashy beaches are on display in Trieste, Italy

From Oct. 27, 2019 to Jan. 6, 2020, the Civic Museum “Revoltella” in Trieste is hosting the exhibition Life’s a beach, dedicated to the trashy beaches of British photographer and photojournalist Martin Parr (Epsom, 1952). Curated by Claudia Colecchia, head of the Photo Library of the Civic Museums of History and Art of the Municipality of Trieste, the exhibition by the “documentary photographer” (as Parr himself likes to call himself) aims to offer the public an exploratory journey into the world of beaches, seen almost as a metaphor for opulent Western society, with its tics, clichés and stereotypes.

The exhibition documents, with 56 images, the British photographer’s anthropological research into a humanity caught at the moment when its guard is down: on the beach, a place often photographed by Parr. His international career was launched by his well-known 1986 book, The Last Resort (a pun that can be translated as “the last beach”), which depicted the decaying beaches of New Brighton, a tourist resort near Liverpool. Parr’s specific interest in beaches stems from a specific geographical circumstance due to the physical conformation of his home country: on the soil of the United Kingdom, it is impossible to be more than 120 kilometers away from the sea. With such coastal development, beach photos are therefore a well-established tradition in Britain (somewhat as it is for street photography in the United States: the same argument can be applied to UK beaches). As is the case everywhere in the world, on British beaches people relax, feel themselves, and show off all those signs of the vaguely eccentric behavior that is associated with the inhabitants of that country.

For several decades, therefore, Martin Parr’s photographs have documented all aspects of this tradition, with close-ups of bathers intent on sunbathing, as well as images chronicling diving into the sea or picnicking on the sand. Over the years, Parr’s interest in the beach has extended to the rest of the world. In this new collection we find photographs taken even in faraway countries such as China, Argentina and Thailand. Published in 2012 on the occasion of an exhibition first presented at the Lyon Photo Festival, the book from which the exhibition is taken reveals Parr’s commitment to his favorite subject: on beaches, the absurdities and oddities of national-popular behavior blend perfectly. Parr enjoyed showing, for example, how different Latin American countries present a completely different sense of beach fashion, from the skimpy costumes of Brazil to the nature reserves of Mexico to the moment of the infusion called “mate” that is drunk in Uruguay. There could be no shortage of attention to the commercial aspect, since the beach has always been one of the places where virtually anything can be found for sale, from the services of an “ear cleaner” in Goa, India, to grilled fish in Chile, and even pre-cooked noodles in China.

Trieste is hosting Parr’s exhibition for two reasons: the first is the concurrence with the Trieste Photo Days photography festival, an event entirely dedicated to urban and street photography in which Parr was jury president of the 2019 Urban Photo Awards. The second lies in the fact that there are also numerous beaches around Trieste, and the sea is an integral part of the DNA of its inhabitants, an essential component of Trieste’s identity, in a sort of perpetual beach therapy to quote Martin Parr himself.

Martin Parr has published over 100 volumes and edited another thirty publications. Curator of the Arles Photography Festival in 2004 and the Brighton Photography Biennial in 2010, in 2013 Parr was visiting professor of Photography at the University of Ulster. His works are exhibited in many contemporary art museums, such as Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, and MoMA New York. In 2017 he established the Martin Parr Foundation to support and preserve the work of photographers who have made and continue to make important work in the British Isles.

Life’s a beach can be visited daily (except Tuesdays, closing day) during Museo Revoltella’s opening hours, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. (admission 7 euros). The exhibition is organized by the City of Trieste in collaboration and in conjunction with the Trieste Photo Days 2019 photography festival and the prestigious Magnum Photos agency, of which Parr, a member since 1994, was president from 2013 to 2017.

Pictured: Martin Parr, Kent, Margate, 1986. Copyright Martin Parr - Magnum Photos

British photographer Martin Parr's trashy beaches are on display in Trieste, Italy

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.