Utterly Lazy and Inattentive

Martin Parr in Words and Pictures

Martin Parr, Wendy Jones

$69.99

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Particular Books
02 December 2025

Individual photographers; Autobiography: arts & entertainment

One of the most popular photographers on the planet recounts his life and art - and gives us a love song to queues, church fates, and Spice Girls-themed crisps

By the age of 14, I decided I would be a photographer. 'It's what I will do for the rest of my life, until I drop dead.' I knew when I was very young. It was a definite decision. Don't ask me why. I just knew it was the right thing.

When Martin Parr was fourteen, his teacher wrote that he was 'utterly lazy and inattentive' in a school report. He went on to become one of the most successful and sought-after photographers in the world. Martin has published over one hundred photobooks on many different subjects, from seaside resorts to smoking, over his career. Now, for the first and only time, Martin has produced a book about himself, telling his own story, in his own words.

This autobiography combines over 150 of Martin's photographs - from his earliest snapshots to the work he is doing today - with his recollections and reflections on each image. We meet a boy growing up in suburbia, who collects obsessively and notices everything. We see him exploding into the public consciousness in the late eighties with a series of startling, ultra-saturated colour images of the British seaside - and scandalising the photography establishment in the process. We see society changing over the decades, from the demise of steam trains, through the opening of the first McDonald's in Moscow, to the transformations of the post-pandemic world.

As Martin shares his story, his distinctive voice delicately captured by his friend, the writer Wendy Jones, he also reveals his approach to work and commissions; his tricks for gaining access and getting the shot; and he divulges his particular passions- for crowds and queues, fetes and placards, bad weather on beaches, and more.

This is the definitive account of a great photographer's career, curating the work that has defined his life. By looking at the world through his eyes and his lens, we come away seeing Martin Parr - and ourselves - a little differently.

By: Martin Parr, Wendy Jones
Imprint: Particular Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 252mm, Width: 185mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 500g
ISBN: 9780241740828
ISBN 10: 0241740827
Pages: 312
Publication Date: 02 December 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Martin Parr is one of the world's most famous and successful photographers, particularly celebrated as a searing and witty documentarian of British life. He holds the Guinness World Record for the largest simultaneous photography exhibition- on 1st April 1999, Common Sense was shown simultaneously at 41 galleries around the world. Today, there is always at least one Parr show on somewhere in the world. Wendy Jones is a writer based in London. She is the author of seven books, including the bestselling Grayson Perry, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl. She has a PhD from Goldsmiths on writing interview-based biographies, and her books have been published in eleven languages.

Reviews for Utterly Lazy and Inattentive: Martin Parr in Words and Pictures

- - Praise for Martin Parr * - * Martin Parr is a genius * W Magazine * Martin Parr is the quintessential anorak * Prospect * Martin Parr is the ultimate chronicler of Englishness * VICE * Martin Parr is the Jay-Z of documentary photography * Star Tribune * Like any successful spy, Martin Parr is the sort of guy you wouldn’t look at twice if you passed him in the street * The Times * Martin Parr is the emperor of bad taste -- Vicki Goldberg Like all great artists, Martin Parr has altered how we see the world -- Grayson Perry Martin Parr is a chronicler of our age … Parr enables us to see things that have seemed familiar to us in a completely new way -- Thomas Weski, curator