World-famous British photographer Martin Parr has died. In 2012 he hosted the Helmond carnival for four days and immortalized the most ‘ordinary’ and everyday traditions. Parr liked to poke fun at society in his photos, and Keiestad was also not spared in his iconic work.
“When people hardly pay attention to him anymore, he photographs them,” is how Museum Helmond best describes the famous photographer’s working method.
In the photo: a man in a bunny suit with a bunch of carrots around his neck and a woman in a somewhat clumsy, drunk version of Smurfette. They watch the parade go by, exactly the kind of moment Parr is chasing.
Parr in Helmond
It is one of the many images that Parr made in February 2012. For four days he travels through cafes, festive temples, parades and ceremonies in the Keiestad to capture the carnival. Not a single back room or lost square escapes his lens.
A prince who casually takes a croquette from the wall, a boy who joins in for a meal, and a photo of Parr himself sitting bored across from a female clown.
Learned young is done old, one of the photos the photographer took in Helmond:
That last photo would later return in his book Bored Couples, which brings together photos of bored couples from all over the world. The sparks certainly don’t fly in the photos of the couples.
Critical
Parr started his career in Great Britain and made his breakthrough with colorful photographs of the simplest everyday scenes. He liked to poke fun at consumer society.
He photographed tourists sunbathing on dingy beaches next to overflowing waste bins, people imitating each other at the Tower of Pisa and bored couples looking past each other.
A bored couple and a man sunbathing in a special place. Typical works by Parr:
His work often contains a critical undertone. “The state we are all in is appalling,” he once told it French news agency AFP. “We are too rich. We consume everything.” He was referring to mass tourism and its consequences for large cities.
Since 1994, Parr has been a member of the prestigious Magnum Photos, where he served as president for three years. He then traveled through Europe and Asia to capture the ‘everyday’ there too. which eventually led him to the bars and cafés of Keiestad.
Portraits of Helmonders
Later that year, Museum Helmond opened a major exhibition of his work. The carnival photos attracted packed houses: dancing princes, people dancing and a city that could be captured unfiltered. In the first six months it attracted 14,000 visitors.
During his stay, Parr also shot portraits of well-known and lesser-known residents of Helmond: firefighters, police officers, mayor Fons Jacobs, then city poet Bert Kuijpers and artist Evert Slegers. He thought the last portrait was the most successful. The photos were intended for his personal archive, although the subjects were given a small print to take home.
In 2021, Parr was diagnosed with cancer. Yet he continued to photograph until the last moment. The artist who so accurately captured Helmond in all its ‘ordinariness’ has turned 73 years old.
A croquette is taken from the wall at the snack bar. Typical carnival, right?