Martin Parr Quotes

I try to capture reality, nothing else.

I try not to be spectacular with the camera. I try to be a witness of what's going on.

I'm simply trying to tell the truth about human behaviour as I see it.

I'm just writing about people. People are dark and complicated. I'm trying to tell the truth; that's all that I do.

I recorded that because it happened to me. I wasn't making a point.

To me documentary photography means making a picture so that the viewer doesn’t think about the man who made the picture. At its esthetic core is very old tradition in art: naturalism. And its purpose is to document all facets of social relationships.

The photograph doesn't claim to be a participant, or to know, or to be a club member of whatever it's documenting - photography is more demanding when it doesn't pretend to know.

I've been accused of being a little pedantic here and there, but I don't buy that criticism. I'm telling it like I see it. You don't have to buy it. You don't have to like it. You don't have to listen to it at all. I'm not trying to convince people of things, other than the fact that I'm trying to make as vivid as I can my own feelings and experiences.

I have thought it my duty to exhibit things as they are, not as they ought to be.

The camera photographs what's there.

I am determined to live without illusions. I want to look at reality straight. Without hiding.

I never see myself as writing satire. I think I write about people as they really are, without making them better or worse.

I like documentaries because there's nothing to nitpick or criticize about scenes if they aren't just right. It's about honesty and real-life circumstances coming out. Granted it can be swayed by how people tell that story, but overall, I like it because it is true.

I love the idea I can go off with a single camera and a few rolls of film unencumbered... I was not interested in the illusion of reality, I wanted to get close to what was happening.

I approach writing stories as a recorder. I think of my role as some kind of reporting device - recording and projecting.

Sometimes you've got to put your realistic glasses on and see who you are.

There is a way to tell the truth about you without you; it's just a lot more work.

Nothing I do is didactic. I just want to hold up a mirror and say, 'This is who we are.'

What I've found in my research is that realism and self-honesty are the antidote to ego, hubris, and delusion.

I've always wanted to be aware of what's going on around me, and I've wanted to use photography as an instrument of research into and reporting on the life of my own time.

I'm not very eloquent about things like this, but I think that writing and photography go together. I don't mean that they are related arts, because they're not. But the person doing it, I think, learns from both things about accuracy of the eye, about observation, and about sympathy toward what is in front of you... It's about honesty, or truth telling, and a way to find it in yourself, how to need it and learn from it.

I try to be as realistic as possible.

I remember Julianne Moore talking about acting and she said, "I'm just looking for truth. When people watch, they're not looking to see me. They're looking to see themselves." That's one of my new favorite sayings

Be honest about what you see, get out of the way and let the story reveal itself

With nonfiction, I go in trying to be really honest about what my preconceptions are.