BROOKLYN, NY.- Janet Borden, Inc. is presenting FASHION FAUX PARR, the first exhibition devoted to Martin Parrs fashion work. Parr has been making photographs for the fashion industry since 1999. This twenty-five year undertaking has seen him travel from Moscow to Bangkok, from Milan to New York, on assignment for various magazines and fashion houses, including his long-standing work for Gucci.
There is a relentless enthusiasm present in this work, galloping along at an hysterical pace. Like the fashion industry itself, the photographs are fast, theyre flash, and theyre cacophonous. Parr is the perfect photographer to both capture and comment on what hes photographing, as he always does. Commercial assignments are the same brief as editorial work for him. He is hired to produce Martin Parr photographs.
Many of Parrs signature tropes, including vivid colors and a keen appreciation of the absurd, are on view in these photographs. The daylight flash, the dressing up and partying, the coincidental matching of patterns and colors in unlikely places, all commingle in this body of colorful and witty work. As the premier documentary photographer working in England, Parr brings his extraordinary sensibility to the world of fashion. Consider the cover of the book: long-legged models slouch in line
at Katzs Delicatessen.
A particularly wonderful image includes a Parr autoportrait as he photographs a model in Arles.
The accompanying monograph by Phaidon clocks in at a generous three hundred two pages.
Martin Parr was born in Surrey, England, in 1952. He currently lives in Bristol. He has worked on many photographic projects throughout the world, resulting in over 120 published books, including Bad Weather; The Last Resort; The Cost of Living; Common Sense; Think of England; The Last Parking Space; Martin Parr: Objects. His work is widely exhibited and collected. His last monograph, Only Human, was a 13-room extravaganza of several hundred photographs and objects, was exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, London. In 2014, he created The Martin Parr Foundation to promote and preserve the history of British documentary photography.