Following on the heels of Martin Parr’s limited-edition, album-style publication Life’s a Beach, Aperture now presents this beach-friendly mini edition. Parr has been photographing the topic of the beach for many decades, documenting sunbathers, rambunctious swimmers caught mid-plunge and the eternal sandy picnic. His international career, in fact, could well be traced to the publication of The Last Resort (1986), which depicted the seaside resort of New Brighton, near Liverpool. What is perhaps less known is that this obsession has led Parr to photograph beaches around the world. This compilation, his first on the topic, presents photos of beachgoers on far-flung shores, including Argentina, Brazil, China, Spain, Italy, Latvia, Japan, the United States, Mexico, Thailand, and of course, the U.K. The compilation brings to the forefront Parr’s engagement with a cherished subject matter-that rare public space in which general absurdities and local quirks seamlessly fuse together. This book shows Parr at his best, startling us with moments of captured absurdity and immersing us in rituals and traditions associated with beach life the world over.

This Martin Parr retrospective is rich in the wit and colour that Parr's work is best known for, but also offers the first serious assessment of the career of this major contemporary photographer. Parr combines an urge to document with a bemusement about social behaviour. Author Val Williams, a distinguished writer and curator, considers his better known later work in the context of his full career and in so doing shows how Parr's photographs have highlighted political and social change over the last thirty years. While Parr began his career in Britain, he now has a large international following. This book offers the overview that many have eagerly awaited. It features fascinating previously unpublished early work, his startling and original 1974 installation Home Sweet Home, early black-and-white photographs of the people and places of Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire where he lived and worked in the 1970s, photographs from Ireland and Salford, and of course a selection of the very best images from all his published books including The Last Resort, The Cost of Living, Signs of the Times and Think of England (published by Phaidon). With unlimited access to Parr's archives and quoting from extensive interviews, Val Williams charts Parr's life and career, revealing insights into his influences and attitudes and assessing his importance within the worlds of art and photography.