Martin Parr’s Brexit Britain
A long-standing observer of British life, Parr captures the dissonance and warning flags surrounding the UK’s EU exit
Anyone keen to understand the contradictions that led to Brexit and the problems Britain now faces might want to skip today’s headlines and instead take a look at the country from Martin Parr’s perspective.
“Martin Parr excels at portraying the many external elements that surround and define us,” writes the historian and curator Philip Prodger in our new book Only Human: Photographs by Martin Parr. “Not just the things we buy, but the clothes we wear, the sports teams we champion, the clubs and political parties to which we belong and the traditions we honour. Do we wave the Cross of St George or St Andrew? Are we Brexiteers or Remainers? Do we go barefoot on the beach or wear white socks with sandals? What do our homes look like, our dining tables and our teacakes? The people Parr photographs are surrounded by evidence of the choices they have made.”
The dissonance and contradictions in those choices has always been something Parr’s pictures focussed on. However, the political implications of these clashes and differences becomes far clearer in the later pictures in the book, many of which focus on Britain’s exit from the European Union.
“In the years leading up to and after the 2016 Brexit referendum on membership in the European Union, Martin Parr documented the spirit of modern Britain, particularly in areas with high concentrations of ‘Leave’ voters," explains our new book.
“For someone like Parr who has spent much of his career exploring British identity, Brexit is not only one of the biggest socio-political events of our time, comparable to the rise of populism and nationalism in countries from the United States to Italy, it is also a curious manifestation of British identity,” Prodger writes. “The Brexit debate parallels the rise of nationalist movements in the United States, Hungary, Poland and Italy, and the revival of far-right factions in Austria, Germany and France. Yet Parr provides little evidence of the uglier side of British separatism, or indeed, of simmering Scottish and Welsh nationalist sentiments or ongoing tensions in Northern Ireland. Parr shows us that politics is an abstract affair to most citizens, particularly beyond the M25 where central government actions can feel especially remote. The people in Parr’s photographs are simply getting on with things, expressing their patriotism perhaps, but participating in fetes and festivals much as they always have done, queuing, shopping and meeting up for a drink.”
Despite these signs of social harmony, there’s still plenty of divisions, contradictions and warning signs among the photographer’s newer images.
“A chained pit bull terrier in an England jersey sits sleepily as two women watch a St George’s Day parade in the background, covered almost head to toe in patriotic fineryf one even wearing a red-and-white plastic lei," writes Prodgerm surveying these newer pictures. "It is, potentially, the calm before the storm – the red warning flag on a Cornish beach is the only hint of possible trouble to come.”
To see all these images and plenty more besides, order a copy of Only Human: Photographs by Martin Parr here.