The Tamesis
However, after Pal was elected by one vote, upon reflection he considered Cartier-Bresson’s words a compliment. Being from a completely different planet has always been his calling card.
Since he first picked up a camera and exposed a handful of photographs (his first photo essay, when he was 16, was four snapshots of Harry Lumsden’s fish and chip shop outside Leeds), Parr has surveyed the world around him with deadpan bewilderment, as if the earth really was the final frontier, distant and unmapped, and he was a modern-day Prospero, inviting us to marvel at its wonders or shy away from its curious impossibilities.
For Magnum, the terrestrial landscape was one of war, famine and disaster; for Parr, the front line was new and immediately available: “I went out, round the corner to the local supermarket…” He dared to appear obtuse.
