First edition of Utterly Lazy and Inattentive: Martin Parr in Words and Pictures by Martin Parr and Wendy Jones. First impression. Medium format hardback in new condition. Signed by Martin Parr on the title page.

About

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. This is the only book that Martin ever produced about himself, telling his own story, in his own words.

This autobiography combines over 150 of Martin’s photographs – from his earliest snapshots right up to 2025 – 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 shared his story, his distinctive voice delicately captured by his friend, the writer Wendy Jones, he also revealed his approach to work and commissions; his tricks for gaining access and getting the shot; and he divulged his particular passions: for crowds and queues, fetes and placards, bad weather on beaches, and more...