Fashion Faux Parr: Martin Parr

"Some of the shoots feature models, some are people who were cast in the street, sometimes you cannot tell the difference. Some shoots resemble documentary, some look more like fashion, they can even look like art. What is exciting is that it is difficult to tell the difference.The traditional boundaries of these worlds are slipping away and I am enjoying exploring these new fusions".

 

These words by Martin Parr, taken from the preface to Fashion Magazine, edited in 2005 to mark an event at Le Bon Marché, perfectly sums up fashion’s role in his work. Twenty years on, two books and a new rendez-vous at Le Bon Marché inspire this exhibition at the gallery.

 

Since the 1980s, numerous fashion magazine and couture houses have taken interest in

the artist’s unique style. Overthrowing the classic codes of commercial photography, Parr takes ordinary scenes as his backdrop, placing models and bystanders on the same level. The similarities with the ultra-tight framing of his Common Sense series and with the beach-town setting of The Last Resort attest to the artist’s indistinction between commissioned work and personal productions. Bold perspectives, compositions and chromatic ranges contribute to the kitsch, ironic tone running through his work. Featuring the photographer’s own aesthetic realism, these images reveal an unfiltered portrayal of society and the fashion world.

 

From Gucci to Jacquemus, from the Californian desert to Paris, from a gas station to

the catwalk, twenty-five years of fashion photography signed Martin Parr are presented in this exhibition.