Martin Parr sets the record straight

The renowned British photographer, Martin Parr, was recently in the city to give a talk on photobooks, as a continuation to his long term project The Photobook: A History Vol I, II and III, where he along with Gerry Badger has meticulously tried to construct a narrative of the history of photobooks across the world.

In the session, which took place at Jnanpravaha a para-academic organisation, he spoke about what got them started with the seminal work on the books in the first place. “We realised that the status of the photobook was very much underrated. When you ask photographers what’s the one thing that turns them on, they’ll say a few books that they saw that got them excited and yet in the history of photography, the book would have hardly been mentioned. So I felt that it was my job on behalf of photographers, trying to give photobook more status.”

Martin, who has been a member of Magnum Photos, the famous photo agency, has around 100 photobooks published, that have been featured in more than 100 exhibitions worldwide. Last year, he published The Chinese Photobook: From the 1900s to the Present.

Explaining the history of his book, Martin said, “In terms of the history, we all know that it is very subjective. Different histories written by different theorists are sometimes not what we as photographers think is right. So Jerry and I thought that we would make a revisionist history, where we would ask the first questions — like which books we liked and what photobooks changed our lives. This was crucial as a new reading. Because the trouble with curators and theoretician is that they sit at their desk waiting for things to show up. They don’t go out and look in the world, which is what I do.”

The event was organised by a BIND is a photography oriented collective run by Philippe Calia, Andrea Fernandes, Asmita Parelkar, Nishant Shukla and Sunil Thakkar.